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Directors

Harwoods is a privately owned automotive retail group based on the south coast of England, serving customers from across Hampshire, Surrey, Sussex, Kent and beyond.

Our established family business, with a reputation for high standards, was founded over 85 years ago – so we are true experts in our field.

Guy Harwood

Chairman

Bio:

Harwoods was established by Wally Harwood, father of Guy Harwood and was based at London Road Pulborough.

1965-1996, Guy began riding out for Ryan Price at Findon at the age of 18, Guy would go on to win 40 point to point winners and 14 National Hunt Races. Over the next few years he started working as a pupil assistant trainer to Bryan Marshall when he was 21 and five years later in 1965 he commenced training under permit.

Owned Petworth, Pulborough and Storrington Harwoods Garages during that time and went on to buy Coombelands Farm, where he developed Coombelands Racing Stables.

Guy joins the garage business full time during 1992. The size and profile of the Group is increased as is the investment and management structure.

Interests:

Golf, Bridge, Shooting.  Previously Cricket & Tennis (and used to play to a good level) and rode to hounds.

Archie Harwood

CEO

Bio:

Archie grew up with the business performing a variety of roles prior to being appointed to the board in 2012 as Business Development Director. Archie’s proudest achievement in that role was leading the creation of the company’s forward vision in collaboration with his fellow directors. The Harwoods vision statement "Creating memorable experiences" reflects Archie’s personal motivation as well as the motivations of others he observed growing up in the business. He believes Harwoods does this naturally but is keen to ensure this is a daily focus for all team members – he believes this is how Harwoods can stand out in the market. Archie is enormously excited to have taken up the position of CEO in 2018, as someone who is inspired by human interaction, a variety of workload and being able to look at the big picture, he feels the position is perfect for him. Archie is optimistic for the future of the auto retail industry and his main goal for the future is attracting and developing the best teams of people who are passionate and innovative in driving the business forward towards it’s omnichannel future.

Interests:

Skiing, tennis, socialising

Paul Suter

Finance Director

Bio:

Paul has a degree in Accountancy with Computing from the University of Kent at Canterbury. He qualified as a Chartered Accountant with first time passes in 1982.

He has worked in Motor Retail since 1990 and joined Harwoods in 1997. In the last 21 years Paul has been core to the growth of Harwoods through the many acquisitions. As a result, turnover has grown 20 times from £30m to £600m.

As you would expect from an accountant Paul is a detail oriented person who takes pride in running a ‘clean’ set of books for the company.

Outside of work Paul is an active member of his local church where he is a trustee. He also sits on the board of two other charities run by friends of his from church. One of these, Children on the Edge, was one of three charities chosen by The Times for their Christmas 2017 appeal, due to their work with the Rohingya refugees from Myanmar.

Interests:

Music (playing & listening), theatre, canal network

Paul Mitchell

Group Aftersales Manager

Bio:

I Joined the motor industry in 1991 in a Land Rover Dealer -  Then joined Harwoods in 2003 as a Trade Rep @ Coulsdon site in the parts Dept 2yrs, went onto be a Service advisor at Croydon for 6 months, then went onto manage Edenbridge Parts Department for 3 years before taking on responsibility for both Edenbridge and Tonbridge Parts Depts until 2012, when I was appointed the Group Parts Manager – until Nov 2017 when I appointed into my current role.

Interests:

Brighton Season ticket holder, big F1 fan. I Took a year off work to Travel the world, which included Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Australia and New Zealand before joining Harwoods, I found this a great experience and learnt some much.