Constellation Automotive Group

Last updated

Constellation Automotive Group
Company typeVehicle remarketing and logistics
Industry Automotive
Founded1946: as Southern Counties Car Auctions
October 2020: Constellation Automotive Group
Founder David Wickins
Headquarters
Bedford
,
England
Key people
 Avril Palmer-Baunack (Executive Chairman)
Tim Lampert
(Chief Financial Officer)
ProductsPhysical and online vehicle auctions
Owner TDR Capital
Subsidiaries
Website www.constellationautomotive.com OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Constellation Automotive Group is a used vehicle marketplace. It was founded in the United Kingdom in 1946, as Southern Counties Car Auctions, and was a publicly traded company, BCA Marketplace, when acquired and taken private by TDR Capital in November 2019. TDR rebranded it to the current name in October 2020.

Contents

History

In 1946, Royal Navy officer David Wickins decided to sell his Riley Lynx tourer. Placing an advert in the local newspaper, he offered to sell the car to the first person who turned up at his mother's house in Farnham, Surrey with £200. Arriving home late, he found a crowd of eager buyers, and so auctioned the car off for £420. [1]

Wickins then rented a farmer's field at Frimley Bridges, now under junction 4 of the M3 motorway on the A331 by Hawley Road in Frimley, Surrey, and set up his first public auction. [1] The 14 cars sold for a total of £8,250. Wickins and one of his brothers immediately founded Southern Counties Car Auctions, which, when he left the Royal Navy soon after, he expanded across the UK by selling surplus ex-British Army and Royal Air Force vehicles for the Ministry of Defence. [1]

Wickins renamed the company British Car Auctions, and expanded it across Europe and the United States through acquisition. This included the purchase of the car auctions division of British conglomerate Hawley Goodall, owned by Michael Ashcroft, which started a lifelong friendship between them. Ashcroft, through his Bermuda and Belize based holdings in various banks, financed a number of Wickins' later business ventures. [2]

The company had head offices at the Frimley Bridges site, but later moved to purpose-built premises at Blackbushe Airport, Yateley to accommodate the now-closed aviation division. It still occupies the site. [1] Employing 160 at its head office, Wickins built the company into the largest car auction business in the world before retiring in 1990. [1] A near-scratch golfer, through this and his long association with the Conservative Party, Wickins met and befriended Denis Thatcher. [1] Wickins later agreed to sponsor Mark Thatcher's motor racing activities in the 1980s through BCA. [1] Denis Thatcher later served on one of Wickins' company boards, while Mark Thatcher served as chairman of Lotus Cars and later BCA in North America, which Wickins had led from near-bankruptcy to survival. [1]

In the late 1980s, Belize-based Hawley Goodall undertook a reverse takeover of ADT Security Services, and renamed itself ADT. [3] Focusing on security systems, ADT sold the North American and European arms of BCA in separate deals. While the residual North American arm was broken-up and sold to trade buyers, the European arm was acquired by a consortium of some 40 private investors, including Lord Ashcroft via his Belize-based investment company, in 1995. [4] In September 2006, the European arm was bought by the investment banking arm of private bank Samuel Montagu & Co., a division of HSBC. [4]

In February 2010, BCA was acquired by the private equity investment firm Clayton, Dubilier & Rice. [5] In March 2015 Haversham Holdings, an investment business, undertook a reverse takeover of BCA and renamed itself BCA Marketplace. [6]

In July 2019, the company launched cinch, an online used-car marketplace aimed at the consumer market. [7] [8] The cinch marketplace has been the major sponsor of the Scottish Premiership, Scotland's top football-division, since the 2021-2022 season, also acquiring naming rights. [9]

The company was acquired by TDR Capital in November 2019, [10] and was renamed Constellation Automotive Group in October 2020. [11] [12]

In December 2021, details of the £323 million purchase of the Marshall Motor Group were announced, although completion was delayed until May 2022 due to a regulatory review by Financial Conduct Authority. [13]

Operations

BCA Belle Vue, Manchester BCA Belle Vue.jpg
BCA Belle Vue, Manchester

The company operates the largest vehicle auction site in Europe and auctions over 50% of all cars sold by auction in the UK. [14]

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Auctions magnate began by selling just one old car". GetHampshire.co.uk. 13 February 2007. Archived from the original on 23 June 2013. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  2. ↑ Andy McSmith and Ben Laurance (16 January 2000). "Ashcroft's Lotus position". The Observer . Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  3. ↑ "The Ashcroft Affair: Offshore tycoon with a mean streak who makes the Tory party nervous". The Independent. 14 July 1999. Retrieved 17 March 2019.
  4. 1 2 "Ashcroft in For BCA Cash Windfall". Sky News. 20 September 2006. Archived from the original on 16 January 2014. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
  5. ↑ "BCA sold to US private equity company". AM Online. 4 January 2010. Retrieved 29 January 2013.
  6. ↑ "British Car Auctions bought by Haversham Holdings". AM Online. 25 March 2015. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
  7. ↑ ellisdavies (16 July 2019). "BCA launches cinch, a new online used car service". Motor Trader. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
  8. ↑ "Online used-car 'unicorns' Cinch and Cazoo in £10bn race to reshape industry". Sky News. Retrieved 26 May 2022.
  9. ↑ "SPFL negotiates new cinch deal". SPFL website. Scottish Professional Football League. 15 June 2022. Retrieved 2 January 2023.
  10. ↑ "Marwyn Value To Get GBP65 Million From BCA Marketplace Takeover". Morning Star. 6 November 2019. Archived from the original on 6 November 2019. Retrieved 6 November 2019.
  11. ↑ Bowman, John (9 January 2021). "Written in the stars: BCA's owner changes name to Constellation Automotive Group Ltd". Car Dealer Magazine. Retrieved 30 March 2021. …registered the name change… last October. … The move means that Constellation Automotive Group is the umbrella company for WeBuyAnyCar, BCA, and Cinch, with the BCA Marketplace brand being dropped
  12. ↑ Salisbury, Ben. "BCA owner renames itself 'Constellation' - AIM Group" . Retrieved 30 March 2021.
  13. ↑ "Constellation Automotive given green light for Marshall Motor Holdings takeover". Automotive Management. 11 May 2022. Retrieved 8 January 2024.
  14. ↑ Campbell, Peter (28 June 2016). "BCA Marketplace announces £1.2bn sales" . Financial Times . Archived from the original on 10 August 2021. Retrieved 30 November 2017.
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