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.
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.
Golf, Bridge, Shooting. Previously Cricket & Tennis (and used to play to a good level) and rode to hounds.
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.
Skiing, tennis, socialising
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.
Music (playing & listening), theatre, canal network
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.
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 so much.
Overseeing the Group’s Financial Services operations and FCA compliance, Martin has been part of Harwoods since 2014. Working within the automotive industry for over 25 years, with the majority of time involved with F&I, he has an avid fondness for numbers, finance figures and compliance! With ever increasing regulations and governance by the FCA, Treating Customers Fairly is always at the forefront of our company’s ethos and culture. With extensive financial and operational skills gained from over 15 years’ experience and knowledge at Group level, this enables Martin to make strong contributions to strategy, development and compliance to this sector of the business.
Outside of work, he supports Harlequins Rugby and over the years he has participated in numerous endurance sporting events, and has completed two Ironman Triathlons, multi-day cycle challenges and is a keen open-water swimmer. Time now is spent with the family or with his two flatcoated retrievers which he works during the winter months on shoots around West Sussex.
Having started in the Motor industry in 1992 as a valeter then sales executive, I joined Harwoods following the 2004 acquisition of Testwood Motor Group Ltd taking on the role of Group Fleet Sales Manager.I was promoted to the main Harwoods board in April 2009 to take the position of Audi Brand Director for the Harwoods Audi market area and was then also asked to oversee our Volkswagen Trade Parts Specialist (TPS) division, the Audi corporate sales department and the Harwoods MAN truck centre.In April 2017 I took on the role of Operations Director for Harwoods, responsible for our 17 franchised outlets representing Audi, Bentley, Aston Martin and Jaguar Land Rover. Due to the size of our JLR Division I also represents Harwoods as JLR Franchise Director and sit on the JLR Retail Board.
Nick has worked in the Motor Trade since 1997 and joined Harwoods in 2012 as Head of Business at Five Oaks Audi before moving to Portsmouth Audi in 2013. Outside of work Nick fills his spare time socialising with friends and family with the occasional game of golf.
Golf & Cycling
Dan is an entrepreneur who has founded many successful start-up investments within the tech and video games sector. Dan led successful ISP start-ups in the 1990’s and has more recently enjoyed commercial success within the Cloud Infrastructure and services sector. Dan has worked very closely with co-investor Chris in several new mobile studio start-ups in the ‘free to play’ space. Dan has a love for food and drink. He collects wine and often travels the world on the quest for exciting cuisine. Dan lives in Sussex on a smallholding and farms rare breed sheep as well as maintaining his numerous beehives. Aside from beekeeping, other passions include racing cars, tennis and fly fishing. Dan is passionate about business start-ups and delivering exciting ideas.
Race cars, Food and Wine, Beekeeping
Craig became Head of Business in January and is now responsible for both Bentley Hampshire and Sussex. Craig was previously based at Head Office and was awarded the prestigious ‘Bentley Retailer of the year in 2015’ following this up with ‘Bentley Head of Business’ in 2016 and 2017 With a 20year pedigree in the motor trade having a deep knowledge on all aspects of automotive retailing.‘I was attracted to Harwoods by its reputation as a professional family run business. It has an emphasis on growth, both at a business level but also at a personal level for all its employees. We are a family business, but we are able to compete with the best in the industry. I would advise anybody thinking of Harwoods not to hesitate, it’s a very professional business with plenty of opportunity for development. In my role as Head of Business I lead by example, making sure our brand values are integral to everything we do and how we behave’.
Spending time with family, visiting the gym, cycling and socialising, he is also a qualified Rugby Coach for under 13’s
I was brought up at Coombelands Racing Stables in Pulborough, where my father Guy Harwood trained over 1600 winners, 30 of which were at Group 1 Level including Champion racehorse Dancing Brave. I rode successfully as an amateur jockey winning 90 races and became the first lady to ride in the Champion Hurdle at the 1990 Cheltenham Festival. I also rode as an event rider winning the three-day event at Punchestown in Ireland and represented England in Italy later that year. In 1996, I took over the racehorse training licence at Coombelands Stables from my father Guy and have since trained over 680 winners. Coombelands Racing Stables is a family run business, my husband Mark and children Ryan and Emma taking an active part and I take much pride in providing a good service to our loyal owners and staff.
I enjoy taking an active part in the leadership of Harwoods with my Father, Archie and team. Outside of work my interest are my family, skiing and all sporting activities.
Richard’s interest and career in the motor trade started at the early age of just 15 under the YTS scheme; and he hasn’t looked back. As an Apprentice Technician, Richard quickly developed a thorough understanding of the motor vehicle, which saw him progress through to Master Technician status prior to moving on from the workshop environment. Keen to expand his knowledge of the wider business, Richard covered many roles within the retailer which enabled him to start his management journey in 2002. With several years’ experience as a successful head of business, Richard joined the Harwoods Group family in July 2017 with the opportunity to move the Basingstoke business into a brand new Dual Arch Jaguar Land Rover facility, whilst continuing to develop the BMW & Mini Authorised Repairer (also based in Basingstoke). Richard prides himself on being a motor retailing professional, and thrives on generating success through the performance of his teams who benefit from his experience gained from working in many areas of the business.
Richard is a season ticket holder for Portsmouth Football Club, loyally supporting the club through many highs and lows over the years. Presumably to counteract the many lows, Richard enjoys socialising, and is currently 4 years into the sympathetic renovation of his 1930’s art deco home; on the completion of which, a new project may need to be started.
Jamie’s Harwoods journey started in 2012 as General Sales Manager, prior to quickly becoming the Head of Business at the same location the following year. His active role in mentoring and driving performance generated success over three very enjoyable years. Jamie then transferred across to Harwoods Crawley JLR to oversee the New Arch Concept build as Head of Business, which delivers a memorable customer experience as a flagship facility. In January 2019, Jamie became JLR Area Director, responsible for Harwoods Crawley, Croydon, Edenbridge and Pulborough sites. He was also awarded the prestigious Leadership Award in 2018, and sits on the JLR Sales and Marketing panel. Jamie is excited about new technologies within the brands, and passionately delivering these to Harwoods JLR customers.
Jamie loves spending time with his family. He enjoys all sports, whilst having a particular passion for F1 and football. Jamie supports Liverpool, but nobody is perfect.
Jamie is passionate about the Automotive industry and technology and has combined this for the majority of his career. Jamie’s proudest achievement has been the diverse experience his career has generated from dealing with the smallest to the largest organizations and meeting key players globally in the world of technology and Automotive. Jamie engaged with the business in 2019 in an advisory role and is enormously excited to have joined the Executive Team in the position of CDO at the beginning of 2020, as someone who is inspired by the big picture of Digital Evoluution and driving change in Automotive.
Travel, Skiing, Tennis and Being active Outdoors (& of course technology!)
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