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BCA Marketplace, formerly British Car Auctions, is a used vehicle marketplace. It was listed on the
London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St P ...
until it was acquired by
TDR Capital TDR Capital is a British private equity firm headquartered in London, England. History TDR Capital was co-founded in 2002 by Manjit Dale, Stephen Robertson, and Tudor Capital.
in November 2019.


History

In 1946
Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against ...
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. 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 Frimley is a town in the Borough of Surrey Heath in Surrey, England, approximately southwest of central London. The town is of Saxon origin, although it is not listed in Domesday Book of 1086. Train services to Frimley (on the line between ...
, Surrey, and set up his first public auction. 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 The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...
and
Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) an ...
vehicles for the Ministry of Defence. 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 Michael Anthony Ashcroft, Baron Ashcroft, (born 4 March 1946) is a British-Belizean businessman, pollster and politician. He is a former deputy chairman of the Conservative Party. Ashcroft founded Michael A. Ashcroft Associates in 1972 and is ...
, which started a lifelong friendship between them. Ashcroft, through his
Bermuda ) , anthem = "God Save the King" , song_type = National song , song = "Hail to Bermuda" , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , mapsize2 = , map_caption2 = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = , es ...
and
Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...
based holdings in various banks, financed a number of Wickins' later business ventures. The company had head offices at the Frimley Bridges site, but later moved to purpose-built premises at
Blackbushe Airport Blackbushe Airport is an operational general aviation airport in the civil parish of Yateley in the north-east corner of the English county of Hampshire. Built during the Second World War, Blackbushe is north of the A30 road between Camberley ...
,
Yateley Yateley () is a town and civil parish in the English county of Hampshire. It lies in the north-eastern corner of Hart District Council area. It includes the settlements of Frogmore and Darby Green to the east. It had a population of 21,011 at ...
to accommodate the now-closed aviation division. It still occupies the site. Employing 160 at its head office, Wickins built the company into the largest car auction business in the world before retiring in 1990. A near-
scratch golfer The following is a glossary of the terminology currently used in the sport of golf. Where words in a sentence are also defined elsewhere in this article, they appear in italics. Old names for clubs can be found at Obsolete golf clubs. 0–9 ...
, through this and his long association with the
Conservative Party The Conservative Party is a name used by many political parties around the world. These political parties are generally right-wing though their exact ideologies can range from center-right to far-right. Political parties called The Conservative P ...
, Wickins met and befriended
Denis Thatcher Sir Denis Thatcher, 1st Baronet, (10 May 1915 – 26 June 2003) was an English businessman and the husband of Margaret Thatcher, who served as the first female British prime minister from 1979 to 1990; in turn, he became the first male prime m ...
. Wickins later agreed to sponsor
Mark Thatcher Sir Mark Thatcher, 2nd Baronet (born 15 August 1953) is an English businessman. He is the son of Margaret Thatcher, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, and Sir Denis Thatcher; his sister is Carol Thatcher. His early career ...
's
motor racing Motorsport, motorsports or motor sport is a global term used to encompass the group of competitive sporting events which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles. The terminology can also be used to describe forms of competition of tw ...
activities in the 1980s through BCA. 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. In the late 1980s,
Belize Belize (; bzj, Bileez) is a Caribbean and Central American country on the northeastern coast of Central America. It is bordered by Mexico to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the east, and Guatemala to the west and south. It also shares a wate ...
-based Hawley Goodall undertook a
reverse takeover A reverse takeover (RTO), reverse merger, or reverse IPO is the acquisition of a public company by a private company so that the private company can bypass the lengthy and complex process of going public. Sometimes, conversely, the public compa ...
of
ADT Security Services ADT Inc., formerly The ADT Corporation, is an American company that provides residential, small and large business electronic security, fire protection, and other related alarm monitoring services throughout the United States. The corporate hea ...
, and renamed itself ADT. 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. In September 2006, the European arm was bought by the investment banking arm of private bank Samuel Montagu & Co., a division of HSBC. In February 2010, BCA was acquired by the
private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a t ...
investment firm
Clayton, Dubilier & Rice Clayton, Dubilier & Rice is an American private equity company. It is one of the oldest private equity investment firms in the world. Founded in 1978, CD&R has managed the investment of more than $30 billion in approximately 90 businesses, repre ...
. In March 2015 Haversham Holdings, an investment business, undertook a reverse takeover of BCA and renamed itself BCA Marketplace. In July 2019, the company launched ''cinch'', an online used-car marketplace aimed at the consumer market. The ''cinch'' marketplace became the major sponsor of the
Scottish Premiership The Scottish Premiership, known as the cinch Premiership for sponsorship reasons, is the top division of the Scottish Professional Football League (SPFL), the league competition for men's professional football clubs in Scotland. The Scottis ...
, Scotland's top football-division, since the 2021-2022 season, also acquiring
naming rights Naming rights are a financial transaction and form of advertising or memorialization whereby a corporation, person, or other entity purchases the right to name a facility, object, location, program, or event, typically for a defined period of t ...
. The company was acquired by
TDR Capital TDR Capital is a British private equity firm headquartered in London, England. History TDR Capital was co-founded in 2002 by Manjit Dale, Stephen Robertson, and Tudor Capital.
in November 2019, and was renamed Constellation Automotive Group.


Operations

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


References


External links


Official site
{{The Hertz Corporation Auto dealerships of the United Kingdom British companies established in 1946 Retail companies established in 1946 HSBC acquisitions Privately held companies of the United Kingdom 1946 establishments in England Companies that filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2020