Iveco dealer Guest Truck and Van’s longest serving employee has retired after 52-and-a-half years in the business.

Pete Harvey joined the company in 1965 as a 15-year-old apprentice in the parts department and now, aged 68, the aftersales marketing manager has decided to retire.

In his time at the company, Guest Truck and Van has grown from three sites in the West Midlands, to becoming the largest Iveco commercial dealer in the UK and one of the largest in Europe.

Harvey said: “When I started out we had just two dealerships and a bodyshop. Now we have 14 sites, three bodyshops, a vehicle lining operation and a tyre and auto centre.”

He completed his apprenticeship at the original bodyshop site in Wednesbury before stepping up to assistant parts manager there. After 13 years, he was relocated to the head office in West Bromwich, where he was promoted to parts manager.

Harvey was later promoted to general manager before being appointed aftersales marketing manager in 2012.

As well as being the UK's largest Iveco commercial dealer, Guest Truck and Van is also one of the largest Fiat Professional dealers.

In 2010 the company bought new sites in the east of the UK, followed by the acquisition of Sherwood Truck and Van in 2011.

Guest Truck and Van has sites in Birmingham, West Bromwich, Wolverhampton, Coventry, Leicester, Boston, Cambridge, Thetford and Peterborough. Sherwood Truck and Van has branches in Nottingham, Sheffield, South Normanton, Stoke and Winsford.