Bidwill

"And yet, no amount of preparation could eliminate surprises. Bidwill remembers wandering around after the purchase was completed thinking, ‘OK, what have we bought?’ They found warehouses full of Lada cars and tractors that Tappendens had taken from Amalgamated Dairies, which had earlier traded them with the Russians for mutton. How on earth would they sell these ‘awful, old-fashioned, outdated cars?’ Not easily, was the answer, although the tractors weren’t too bad."

"Gibbs’ business associates — Bidwill, Paine, Myers and Friedlander, in particular — were all prospering. Perhaps the highest flyer of this period was Colin Reynolds, the founder of the property development company Chase Corporation. Now that these men and their wives were regulars at the Gibbs house in Parnell, it was less appropriate to get around in bare feet when entertaining. Amanda Gibbs, then a university student with socialist tendencies, was shocked when she saw her parents’ new bourgeois lifestyle."

"During the critical months of the Freightways privatisation, Gibbs had other deals and projects running in parallel. His old ally Tom Clark had steadily increased Ceramco’s shareholding in Atlas until it reached 40 per cent by late 1984. Gibbs admits that blending an electronics and whiteware business with Ceramco’s bricks, crockery and engineering created a ‘totally inappropriate mix’ of companies, but ‘Tom was always wanting to buy something’ and Ceramco’s friendly stake shored up Gibbs’ and Bidwill’s control of Atlas. In July 1985 they went a step further and announced plans for a full merger of Ceramco and Atlas; Atlas shareholders were offered one Ceramco share plus 10 cents, valuing Atlas shares at $3.67, a 16 per cent premium on the market price.[24](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477308-556173400-24) Gibbs and Bidwill were praised for having spearheaded a classic recovery for Atlas’ shareholders from 25 cents in 1980.[25](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477308-556173400-25) When the merger was declared unconditional on 3 September the net result was that Gibbs and Bidwill became Ceramco’s largest shareholders, with 26 per cent between them.[26](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477308-556173400-26) Gibbs replaced John Fair as chairman of Ceramco; Bidwill took over as managing director. Interviewed soon after, Clark said of Gibbs: *He’s lean and tough but at the same time he’s got a cool, evaluating, analytical streak. He’s imaginative, a great people motivator; he’s dead honest, straight up and down — all the things I admire. We’ve had plenty of punch-ups. I don’t think the friendship would be any good without them. I used to win and now he wins. I’m prepared to give up the reins and let him go.*[27](private://read/01jrsfvkjy84rkprtbz9amfvj8/#rw-num-note-477308-556173400-27)"

"After the initial burst of activity from mid-1980 to early 1981, Atlas barely occupied three or four days a month of Gibbs’ time. Bidwill was the executive director while, even before his formal appointment as chairman, Gibbs’ style was to latch on to the topic periodically, testing and challenging Bidwill’s ideas, then letting him get on with it, while he kept his mind free for other opportunities."