David Bowyer retires from Goodwinch
HAVING BUILT up and run Goodwinch Limited for many years now, David Bowyer has decided to start taking life a bit easier. In 1984, two years after founding Overlander 4x4 magazine, David moved from Andover in Hampshire to Zeal Monachorum in Devon. Some of you may know that when he gave up editorship of the magazine, he founded David Bowyer’s Off Road Centre, which led to his early involvement with winches and teaching people to use them. This experience gave him the inspiration to start up his own business that we all know and love as Goodwinch.
“I love researching, designing and developing new products, especially winches driven by 12 and 24 volt DC, AC mains, and petrol and diesel engines for specialist applications. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed developing the company too, but the pace of life has been so busy the last few years I owe it to myself and Tina, my wife, to let someone else run Goodwinch,” confesses David.
While David will still be on hand most of the time with a dedicated hotline at their base at Zeal Monachorum, as well as fronting Goodwinch’s trade stand at all the shows, the new owner, Will Webster, assisted by his son, Sam, will be taking over the reins. As from April 3, Sue Packham, who runs the office and Trevor, her husband who runs the winch workshop, will continue at the new much larger facility in Gunn, Barnstaple.
Will’s new facility offers a lot more than the old premises (with the exception of their off-road training grounds, of course, which David will still run) boasting a large workshop area to design and build challenge trucks, fit winches and all manner of vehicle accessories.
Will’s background is in the tyre industry so other avenues may be explored in the future.
Both father and son are well known in the winch challenge field having competed for many years now and help run the Challenge South West Group (CSW) events around the country, which include designing and building off-road demonstrations at some of the major Land Rover shows in the country such as Malvern, Kelmarsh and Billing.
“I’m looking forward to enjoying my workshops – I can start drawing and set up the milling machine and lathe into operation again, but at a steady pace, without deadlines. I can also spend more time on my hobbies, like greenlaning, amateur radio and photography. I wish every success to Will and his team in taking Goodwinch to new levels in the 4x4 and off-road market place,” comments David.