August 5, 2010

- Happy Birthday to Team24! -

Five years ago to the day, Robert Stiff and his wife Catherine set up a small office with a handful of employees at Airport House on Purley Way, Croydon.

The couple had a vision and the 5th August 2005 was the first day that the vision became a reality. They named their brainchild Team24, a healthcare recruitment company which they had been waiting to set-up for almost a decade.

Initially the firm set out to supply locum doctors, but expanded to supplying nurses as well as branching into the private healthcare market.

It now provides temporary doctors and nurses to large NHS trusts, local hospitals, GP surgeries and private clients in their homes of Surrey and London. There are hundreds of nurses and doctors working for the business every week – which makes the company one the biggest local employers.

It has grown so quickly that Team24 is now widely recognised as the fastest growing business in the South East of England and was placed 16th in The Sunday Times, Fast Track 100 List.

In only five years of operation the awards and nominations have come in droves, including: The winner of Fast Growth Business Awards, Family Business of the Year, finalist of Growing Business Innovation/Technology Award, CBI finalist in best use of Technology and CBI finalist Business of the Year.

Just a few days ago, the National Business Awards nominated Team24 for the Business Link Growth Strategy Award.

Today, Team24 celebrated its fifth anniversary with all 55 staff enjoying cake and a party atmosphere at their head office on Banstead High Street. Robert Stiff marked the event by commissioning internationally acclaimed artist Robert Duncan to draw a cartoon depicting the people that work for the business.

"The reason for the cartoon was a nice, light hearted way of illustrating exactly what we do. Yes, it's busy and sometimes hectic and our staff work under tremendous pressure. But we try and do it with smiles on our faces and that is what Robert Duncan has captured," said Robert Stiff, before talking about Team24's success and its future:

Click to enlarge

"Although I am proud of what we have achieved in five years, in a period of national economic uncertainty, I like to look to the years ahead. And it's the next five years that really excite me as we have some truly ambitious growth plans.

"We want to expand the nursing side right across the UK and will also develop the private nursing side of the company. Additionally we will be setting up other divisions to deal with all the other medical professionals, such as physiotherapists and radiologists.

"So whilst we toast the past five years as a tremendous success, I'd like to close that chapter and look to the next five as being a really pivotal period for Team24." Sharing Robert's enthusiasm are all the staff at Team24, including his three children Katie, Chloe and Marc who all work alongside him, making the company a truly family run business.