A Snider Industries auctioneer takes bids on a piece of equipment at the Purity Foods Auction.

BRUCETON (October 30) Individuals, business representatives and county and city officials gathered inside the former Purity Foods Building located on Rowland Mill Road in Bruceton for an auction of hundreds of items large and small to liquidate assets at the location.

The 202,000 square-foot building, built by HIS in 1990, formerly housed the company’s Distribution Plant.

Tim Kleptz, owner of Dayton, Ohio-based Purity Foods purchased the vacant facility during a property tax sale held in May, 2005. The plant operated until termination of business in mid-June, 2006.

License tags of vehicles in the parking lot of the former food production facility revealed that as many as 11 states were represented in the auction sale.

Thousand of ticketed equipment items ranging in size and price range were available for sale.

Various Internet buyers and buyer representatives manned laptop computers to provide instantaneous equipment bid information to potential buyers located throughout the United States, Canada and beyond.

Administrated by Snider Industries, the auction was held by former owner Kleptz in an effort to generate needed financial capital to cover costs incurred due to the plant’s closure and cessation of operations. Closure of the Bruceton plant in fall 2006 and subsequent closure of all Purity plant facilities led Kleptz’ to file for bankruptcy protection in May of 2007.

Initial bid range for purchase of the building and all contents was set at three million, seven hundred fifty thousand dollars but decreased to three million dollars due to non-placement of bid.

Initial bid range for purchase of all equipment within the structure was set at three million dollars, but decreased to two million dollars due to non-placement of bid.

The auction was expected to continue throughout the day and possibly continue until the following day.

• Equipment Auction held at Former Purity Foods

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