David Wickins

David Allen Wickins (15 February 1920 – 28 January 2007) In 1987, Ashcroft bought out the existing shareholders of BCA via Hawley Goodall, and closed down Wickins treasured aviation division, which flew both Jet Ranger helicopters and Beechcraft King Air turbo prop aircraft.

The company initially had offices at the Frimley Bridges site, but later moved to purpose-built premises at Blackbushe Airport, Yateley, where the aviation division was based. Employing 160 at its head office, Wickins had built the company into the largest car auction business in the world by the time of his retirement in 1990. However, rejected outright by BL, this project failed to materialise.

After the death of founder Colin Chapman in 1982, Wickins became involved with Lotus Cars in 1983, taking a 29% stake in the then troubled company. After bringing in other investors and negotiating with the Inland Revenue, he oversaw a turnaround in the sports car manufacturer's fortunes, which resulted in him being called "The saviour of Lotus". Wickins oversaw the sale of the business to General Motors in 1986. But civil servants, with advising merchant bankers and commercial accountants, considered that at least £1 million was required to save the company and reconstruct it. Despite briefly considering buying the bankrupt Hesketh Motorcycles, and touting a 900cc prototype water-cooled twin at the 1983 National Exhibition Show to attract outside investment, the Conservative-led UK government refused to back the co-op, resulting in Triumph Motorcycles (Meriden) Ltd becoming bankrupt on 23 August 1983.

By early 1983, Lord Ashcroft's Hawley Goodall Ltd had built up a 20% stake in pharmaceutical packaging manufacturer Cope Allman. Ashcroft offered to increase his stake to 29.9%, just below the 30% level at which a formal bid for the entire company must be launched. Ashcroft and Cope Allman fought bitterly over the purchase share price and current holdings, with Cope Allman reporting Ashcroft and Wickins to the Takeover panel, after discovering that BCA had built up a 13.5% in the company. But the takeover panel found that the Ashcroft and Wickins were operating independently, so Hawley was able to increase its holding to 29.9%. At this point the combined holdings of Hawley/BCA in Cope Allman amounted to 43.5%, giving them the power to introduce sweeping changes without launching a full bid.

In 1985 Ashcroft and Wickins bought car sales dealership Henlys Group via a Canadian-registered company. Controlled by Ashcroft's Hawley Goodall, Henlys was merged with funeral hearse makers Coleman Milne to form a Motoring Division. In 1989, Hawley Goodall sold its Motoring Division consisting of Henlys and Coleman Milne to the Plaxton Group, the bus and coach manufacturer based in Scarborough, North Yorkshire.

Wickins became involved with Charles Forte, Baron Forte, joining the board of Forte Group to enable the family to sell-off the catering and restaurant business to concentrate on their hotel business.