Ritchie Bros. EquipmentOne delivers strong customer results in its first year

Marketplace transacts in over 150 asset categories and welcomes 580,000 unique visitors in 2013

VANCOUVER, BC and HOUSTON, TX, Feb. 5, 2014 /CNW/ - Ritchie Bros. (NYSE andTSX: RBA), the world's largest seller of used industrial equipment recently celebrated the one year anniversary of Ritchie Bros. EquipmentOne, the secure online marketplace launched by the company in early 2013. In its first year, EquipmentOne (www.EquipmentOne.com) welcomed 580,000 unique visitors to the site and sold equipment and materials for both large corporate customers and private sellers. Complementary to Ritchie Bros.' flagship unreserved auction business, EquipmentOne is an online marketplace for the sale of equipment and materials where buyers and sellers can negotiate, complete and settle their transactions in a safe and transparent environment.

"Ritchie Bros. EquipmentOne is unlike any other equipment marketplace—it offers sellers control of the selling price and process while providing buyers transparency and security across a broad selection of assets," said Bob Armstrong, Chief Strategic Development Officer of Ritchie Bros. "With EquipmentOne and our live unreserved public auctions, Ritchie Bros. is the only place you need to go to buy or sell used equipment or materials. We offer the world's builders a complete solution set to serve a wide variety of needs. If a seller wants control of price and process, EquipmentOne can help. Or, if the seller wants certainty of sale and global market value, they can use our unreserved auctions. Ultimately, it's all about meeting the needs of the customer."

Ritchie Bros. customer, Johannes Schulze Vohren, Vice President & Managing Director for Wacker Neuson Corporation, a world leading global manufacturer of light and compact construction equipment said, "The combination of EquipmentOne and the unreserved auction has assisted us in driving great results for our company. Having both solutions available to us to meet our varying needs has been a great benefit."

Ritchie Bros. EquipmentOne was initially launched in early 2013 and had a full commercial launch in April. The Marketplace already has hundreds of thousands of qualified members around the world. Members can create personal watchlists, save searches, review market pricing with the Ritchie Bros. Orange Book™, and make offers on listings. Membership to EquipmentOne is free.

"We sold thousands of equipment items from a wide variety of industries on EquipmentOne in 2013," said Chris Connell, President of EquipmentOne. "From our core industries of transportation, construction and energy, particularly strong categories included highway trucks and trailers, earth-moving equipment and tubular assets such as line pipe and OCTG for the energy sector."

One EquipmentOne member, Jesse Wheeler, Vice President of Wheeler Truck Sales and Service in Kansas City, MO, turned to EquipmentOne to sell his Mack DM 690S truck tractor after he had listed it on an online classified website for a few weeks and received no results.

"We've bought and sold with Ritchie Bros. in the past, so we were confident there would be a good buying audience on EquipmentOne and that we would get a fair price out of it at the end of the day—we were right," said Mr. Wheeler. "It was a smooth process, from posting the ad, to finding a buyer, to receiving payment and paper work. We would be confident using EquipmentOne again to sell. It saves an awful lot of work on our end—being able to list an item on just one site and knowing that it will get a lot of attention from the kind of buyers we're looking for."

How EquipmentOne works:
Sellers can create their own listings or work with Ritchie Bros to create listings including equipment photos, detailed asset information, and price parameters which may include an Asking price or a 'Buy it Now' price for a typical listing period of two weeks. EquipmentOne continually brings a qualified buying audience and promotes the seller's listing through its comprehensive marketing campaigns.

Negotiations take place using the Online Negotiation Engine. Buyers are able to make transparent offers for the seller's consideration during the listing period. When the listing period concludes and the item is sold, EquipmentOne provides complete financial settlement services to ensure a safe and seamless transaction.

Some unique site features include:

• EquipmentOne Total Buyer Protection - ensures buyers are protected through an escrow process, seller experience ratings and facilitated dispute resolution
• Ritchie Bros. Orange Book^TM - provides valuable market information to help buyers and sellers assess equipment pricing
• Online Negotiation Engine - provides complete transparency into the negotiation process
• Biggest source of equipment listings on the web - EquipmentOne provides the most equipment listings anywhere on the web by including equipment being sold in Ritchie Bros. unreserved auctions, as well as equipment listed on other websites all across the internet. There are currently more than 3.6 million listings showing on EquipmentOne

About Ritchie Bros.
Established in 1958, Ritchie Bros. (NYSE andTSX: RBA) is the world's largest seller of used equipment for the construction, transportation, agriculture, material handling, energy, mining, forestry, marine and other industries. Ritchie Bros. ™ solutions make it easy for the world's builders to buy and sell equipment with confidence, including live unreserved public auctions with on-site and online bidding (rbauction.com),the EquipmentOne™ secure online marketplace (EquipmentOne.com), a professional corporate asset management program, and a range of value-added services, including equipment financing for customers through Ritchie Bros. Financial Services (rbauctionfinance.com). Ritchie Bros. has operations in more than 25 countries, including 44 auction sites worldwide. Learn more at RitchieBros.com.

SOURCE: Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers

Ian Malinski, Corporate Communications Lead, Ritchie Bros.
Phone: [phone] | Email: [email protected]