Our Staff
Sam Whatmore is the founder and Managing Director of Forest Fuels, with over eight years’ experience in woodfuel production and a further 20 years’ managing woodlands. He also heads up Woodfuel Solutions – our consultancy and advisory service.
Dave Rickwood is the Operations Manager (Forestry and timber procurement). He is a chartered Forester with over ten years’ forest management experience in the South West. Dave’s primary role is to negotiate and oversee the establishment of new woodfuel supply contracts to our customer base in the South West, and secure supplys of chipwood to the depot.
Will Frost is the Operations Manager (Woodfuel). He joined Forest Fuels in summer 2008. He is our Operations Manager, managing the woodfuel depots and customer contracts. A qualified Forester with a wide range of forestry and small business development experience in the South West of England and East Africa!
Office support
Janette Newell is Forest Fuels’ longest serving employee. She keeps the whole operation running!
Barbara Askew brings order to the accounts department.
Denise Drummond is Sam’s PA and is doing a grand job of keeping him organised and on time.
Forestry Team
Jacek Gwozdz is our jovial and experienced Forest Foreman machinery and lorry driver.
Rafal Pohl loves any job, be it chipping at the Eden depot, forest harvesting work or improving his English doing log deliveries.
Richard Ashton has joined us from across the valley where his brother is a dairy farmer, chip quality is his responsibility.
Jack Machin delivers most of the logs locally around Shebbear and North Devon.
Arran Seymour runs the firewood processor and is learning how to control his chainsaw.
Zbyszek Horbowy is the man to deal with big trees, be it splitting them in to firewood or felling them to beautiful sawlogs.




