Tips for Selling Your Used Tissue Converting Equipment

Tissue converting equipment is a considerable investment. When it comes time for an upgrade or replacement, selling the used machinery is generally a sensible way to monetize remaining value and free up budget space for new capital spend.

It wasn’t that long ago when selling second-hand tissue converting equipment presented a bit of a challenge since there weren’t many sale venues available. Now, there is a proliferation of online industrial liquidation marketplaces and brokers from which to choose. However, the ability to reach potential buyers is only part of the equation.

Before you sell used tissue converting equipment — and to increase the odds of a sale —  there are a few things you need to do.

Get Clear on Your Reasons for Selling

Perhaps one of the most important yet often overlooked things a tissue converter can do before selling used equipment is to clearly understand why you’re doing it. After all, there is a high likelihood that a potential buyer will ask. Even a brief hesitation on your part in answering the question could raise doubt in the buyer’s mind and possibly curb interest.

Sometimes, your reasons for selling are obvious: the installed machine is obsolete, or its capacity can no longer keep up with new production requirements from your OEMs or other increased internal productivity. Then there are other maybe less obvious but equally as valid reasons such as facility floor space management, the equipment’s ease of use or a lack of personnel to operate the machinery, or simply the financial need of having to sell used equipment before purchasing new tissue converting equipment.

You may have several reasons why you are choosing to sell used equipment, and that’s okay. Just don’t underestimate the importance of being able to articulate them to potential buyers. 

Pre-Sale Preparation

Online searches are increasingly among the first steps taken by tissue converters interested in investing in pre-owned equipment. Before they reach out to you, they likely have to be reasonably convinced that the tissue converting equipment you’re offering could be the solution they’re seeking — and that it’s a good deal.

Providing photographs and detailed information is helpful and often the reason why a potential buyer may choose your listing over others. Don’t rush to get your equipment listed! Use these tips to showcase your used machinery online:

• Refurbish and clean: Before photographing or listing equipment, have the tissue converting equipment refurbished, if necessary, and cleaned. Doing so increases a buyer’s confidence in the machine’s value, and could also help you earn top dollar during the transaction.
  
• Be specific: Know what you’re selling and share that knowledge in the listing. Sellers that provide specifics about the machine — type, manufacturer, model, serial number, age, and service history — are more credible than those who don’t know or skimp on details.
  
• Provide documentation: User’s manuals, instructions, accessory information — knowing they have access to any documentation pertinent to the use and maintenance of the equipment is attractive to buyers.
  
• Set a fair price: Be realistic about pricing, since many buyers filter search results based on low-to-high-price. If you’re not competitive, your equipment may not be seen by the right people. To verify price points it’s a good practice to review completed online listings for similar equipment.
  
• Engage with and vet buyers: When a potential buyer reaches out to you, don’t hesitate to vet them before you go too far down the sales path. Most reputable online marketplaces do this as part of their process in letting buyers register on the site, but getting a little extra assurance is time well-spent.
  

Select4U

Valmet’s Select4U service is a sales tool developed with a tissue converting equipment seller in mind, offering access to converting and packaging machine experts who offer:

• Used equipment appraisals
  
• Written guarantees of machine values and capacities
  
• Trade-in discounts on used equipment
  

Further, with Select4U sellers don’t have to concern themselves with:

• Finding buyers
  
• Long sales cycles or post-sale equipment transfers
  
• Keeping plant space or budget dollars unnecessarily tied up with used equipment for extended periods of time
  

Selling and buying used tissue converting equipment is a necessary and increasingly competitive undertaking. Valmet’s Select4U service is a boon for tissue converters looking to sell equipment and takes the uncertainty out of pre-owned equipment for buyers. We work to match needs and budgets as carefully and confidentially as we do when connecting sellers and buyers. Visit Valmet’s Select4U web page for more information.