Roger Catchpole, MD of Stow Healthcare, has been announced as the winner of the Director of the Year award, sponsored by Churchmanor Estates Company plc, at the Suffolk Business Awards 2020.

Stow Healthcare is a family-owned and run care home business based in Stowlangtoft in Suffolk. Roger and his company operate five care homes across the east, with a particular focus on the highest quality care in luxurious surroundings.

Stow healthcare has shown impressive and consistent growth in both revenues and profits since its inception in 2010 and now employs over 340 staff locally.

The judges highlighted how impressed they were with Roger’s absolute devotion to delivering the best care to his customers and his genuine desire to really make a difference to their lives. He was able to demonstrate exceptionally strong business, finance and marketing skills alongside expertise around property development.

He also knows that his business is almost entirely dependent on the service provided by his staff, and he takes their wellbeing and rewards very seriously.

Roger also showed resilience and innovation in dealing with the Covid-19 pandemic by forming partnerships with the NHS in Norfolk, Suffolk and Essex to provide access to vacant beds within Stow Healthcare to those in need at the height of the outbreak.

“I am delighted to have been recognised by the judges in the Director of the Year category at the Suffolk Business Awards,” said Roger. “While personal in nature, this award reflects my entire team’s efforts, and I thank them for their dedication to making Stow Healthcare Suffolk’s leading private care provider.”

ABOUT THE SPONSOR

The Churchmanor Estates Company plc is renowned for adopting a collaborative approach to the process of property development.

Through joint ventures with landowners, Churchmanor has helped to unlock the development potential of their landholdings.

For individual local and national business, Churchmanor has developed new premises for relocation or expansion, for example the new Birketts HQ in Ipswich.

Churchmanor believes in creating brilliant spaces for work and for life and has developed over three million square feet of commercial accommodation, which has included research and development parks, business parks, offices, retail and leisure and major town centre regeneration.

THE FINALISTS

EMMA RATZER, CEO ACCESS COMMUNITY TRUST

The judges were impressed by Emma’s hands-on leadership style and the fact that the organisation is run on a firm business foundation. Emma focusses a lot of time around developing her team and this was reflected in ACT achieving 34th place in the Sunday Times Top 100 not for profit employers in 2020.

PAUL BENSLEY, CEO X-ON

Paul has a strong technical background and has demonstrated the ability to spot an opportunity early. As Covid-19 hit, he quickly created a home-based GP system where doctors and patients could communicate and integrate into existing surgery telephony and clinical systems.

TARNIA ROBERTSON, MD UFFORD PARK HOTEL, GOLF AND SPA

Tarnia Robertson took over the reins running the family business back in 2015, developing her previous experience and skills working as a qualified surveyor into learning every facet of a hospitality business. Tarnia has taken on enormous responsibility to adapt the business to changing customer demands.