Our story began long before the Sharwoods name became synonymous with fast, efficient fitment of tyres, batteries, shocks and exhausts.
The founder of Sharwoods, Alec Sharwood, was born in Kimberly in 1899
during the Boer war. He was a pilot in the first world war and,
on returning to Kimberly, trained at de Beers.
He then moved to Grahamstown in 1923 where he started a business
selling Dort cars. A year later he moved to Port Elizabeth and
started a petrol filling station selling Atlantic petrol.
This was a successful venture and the number of petrol stations grew to five.
A tyre retreading factory was started in 1930 and remained in operation
for many years while retreading was a good and viable business. The Honda
motorcycle franchise was added in 1968 and grew to consist of all the major
motorcycle agencies in Port Elizabeth.
With the launch of the Supa Quick network, more than 25 years ago, the filling stations
each had a Supa Quick fitment centre added. This proved the correct way to go and
it was decided to concentrate on fitment centres.
Richard Sharwood had taken over the running of the family business and under
his leadership there was rapid expansion. There are now nine fitment centres,
an exhaust factory, a battery outlet, a filling station, a used tyre
distribution centre, an IT facility, good property aquisitions and expansion
planned for the new year.
Sharwoods is in good shape, has taken advantage of the economic situations
and is ready for the future.