Bidders snap up equipment from Amfac plantations

By Jan TenBruggencate
Advertiser KauaÎi Bureau

LIHU'E, Kaua'i — Successful bidders at the auction of Amfac's sugar plantation equipment were loading up and driving away their new stuff yesterday.

Dovebid, the company that ran the auction of Lihu'e Plantation and Kekaha Sugar gear, kept up the bidding for 13 hours Wednesday, ending near 11 p.m.

"It brought in excess of our expectations," said Dovebid Vice President Ross Pollack. He would not reveal the total sales amount.

Several items, mainly heavy equipment, sold for more than $100,000. A historic clock that kept time for Kekaha Sugar Co. sold for more than $1,000, he said.

"We had buyers who had done their homework," Pollack said. "They were well-informed."

More than 400 people were qualified as bidders, and while most were present at the Radisson Kaua'i Beach Hotel auction room, there were bidders via the Internet from Asia, the Mainland and other Hawaiian islands.

Much of the heavy equipment was sold to Kaua'i buyers. Auctioneers, sensitive to the perception they are linked with the death of businesses and industries, were quick to note the equipment will be put into use by agricultural and construction businesses in the Islands.

"Maybe people won't associate auctions as bad things," Pollack said.

The Dovebid auction included trucks, trailers, tractors and hundreds of lots of power tools, hand tools, parts and other equipment.

The sale of the actual sugar processing equipment — two mills at Lihu'e and one at Kekaha — is being handled by Aaron Equipment Co. That gear has not yet been sold.