American Plant & Equipment

The company

American Plant & Equipment was founded in 1975 and is based in Roebuck, South Carolina. It has done the same thing ever since: take production machinery a plant no longer needs and put it in front of a plant that does. Everything else, the freight, the export paperwork, the consulting, grew out of doing that enough times.

Today the company works across 18 industries, from textiles and nonwovens through foam and bedding, printing and converting, plastics, packaging, food, paper, metalworking and power generation. There are roughly 97,000 machines listed with us. That number matters here for 1 reason only: it is what a buyer network looks like in a single figure, and it is why a machine coming off your floor has somewhere to go.

The warehouse

The consignment program works because we have somewhere real to put a machine. Our warehouse and shop are at 4200 South Church Street Extension, Roebuck, South Carolina 29376. A consigned machine arrives there, indoors, on the ground and near a dock, which is where it is inspected, photographed and shown.

That is not incidental to the price. What it costs a buyer to collect a machine comes off the top of what they will pay. A machine already sitting on our floor is cheaper and less risky to collect than the same machine on the third floor of a working plant behind a structural wall.

The man

Victor LeBron, the owner and president, has been in industrial machinery since before the company existed. He still takes the calls and still walks the floors. The stated purpose of the company, in his words, is to realize the most value for the client. On the consignment side that means telling you the truth about what you have, including when the truth is that another route will beat us.

He also runs paid consulting sessions through the main site on machinery selection, production line setup, plant liquidation and disposal strategy, moving heavy equipment, international sourcing and negotiation. If your question is bigger than a consignment, that is where it goes.

Consulting sessions on americanplantandequipment.com

Why we are not an auctioneer

An auctioneer sells you a date. They advertise the machines, run the sale, take a commission, and on the day the room decides what your equipment is worth. That is a real service and sometimes it is the right one, which is why we say so on every page where it comes up.

We do something different. We are your agent, not the room. The machine comes to our warehouse and is marketed until the buyer who actually needs it appears, which is usually somebody solving a problem rather than hunting a bargain. There is no auction day, and no wondering who showed up.

Why we are not a listing site

A listing site sells exposure and then leaves. You write the description, answer the questions, host the viewings, and carry the space, the insurance and the uncertainty until a stranger calls. We already know who buys this class of machine, because we sell to buyers worldwide, many of them repeat.

What we will and will not do

• We will tell you whether we can sell your machine, and what kind of buyer we would be selling it to.
• We will put every commercial term in writing before the machine ships.
• We will tell you when an auction or scrap beats consignment for what you have.
• We will tell you not to ship something if we think we cannot move it.
• We will not publish your name, your site, your address or your list.
• We will not publish a figure for any machine, or guarantee a price. A machine is worth what a buyer pays for it.
• We will not talk a machine down. The trade is small and reputations last.

Where we are

4200 South Church Street Extension
Roebuck, South Carolina 29376
(864) 574-0404
[email protected]

Financing introductions for the buyers of machinery, and everything currently for sale, sit on the main site.

americanplantandequipment.com