After more than 35 years of auctioning and selling equipment, a North American industry giant is pulling out of Prince George.
Along with four other cities being shut down in the United States, Ritchie Bros. has decided to close its northern capital location.
Vice-President of Canadian Operations Brian Glenn says this change is due to current customer buying habits.
“We’ve seen preference from Northern BC contractors to participate in typically larger events such as those in Edmonton, Grande Prairie, and Chilliwack. Obviously, a lot more companies are comfortable trading assets with buying and selling their equipment on an online platform as well.”
Glenn adds the closure will affect five full-time employees, but believes there’s a chance they could come back.
“As time goes on, we will be more than willing and able to come back up to Prince George to conduct off-site auctions and there’s certainly sale staff that will still covered this region. Basically, our site optimization realizes that the closing of this location here at the end of the year for push the business.”
Ritchie Bros. has an auction scheduled for November 24th, but the final gavel will drop December 31st.
.@RitchieBros' VP Brian Glenn says #CityOfPG is only Canadian location to close at end of 2017; company turning focus to internet, bigger sites like in #GrandePrairie & #Chilliwack | #NorthernBC pic.twitter.com/3gJIzokgmx
— My Prince George Now (@mypgnow) November 10, 2017