Our latest recruit is Tom Higgins, a Wembury boy, who is our new Deputy General Manager. This is the second time Tom has worked for Churchwood. The first was as a ‘Saturday boy’ back in 2000 when we bought Churchwood. Tom, and other local lads, would come in on Saturday and work with our head groundsman, blowing patios, cleaning windows and picnic tables and doing other outside jobs.
Tom went on to do a degree in business studies and then joined a local startup making curry sauces. He was a member of a team that created specific sauces from the basic ingredients, herbs and spices, and packaged them up for sale to restaurants and the general public. One of the tools they employed to get the large volumes of mixtures right was the accounting software package called Sage, which he had learnt to use when doing his degree.
He couldn’t see a long term future in spices, however, and was offered a job by an insurance broker where he worked for 13 years before deciding he needed to change tack again. After a spell doing odd jobs for local firms Tom Stansell offered him some work at Churchwood, backing up the outside team and helping with undergrounding our electrics. A willing and cheerful worker he soon became a regular member of staff and Shirley, Tom and John thought he could play a useful role in our management team, while also understudying others such as the maintenance manager and the leader of the outside group. We were delighted when Tom Higgins accepted our offer and started with us in August.
In a throwback to his first time at Churchwood, one of his first tasks was helping to dig up and replace a sewer pipe!
