South Cheshire Chamber has appointed local businessman Steven Williams as its new Chairman to replace John Beardmore who retired from the position in June following the sale of his company Medica Packaging.
The appointment was confirmed at the Chamber’s Board meeting on 19th December and Steven will take up his appointment from 1st January 2007.
Steven is best known for the way in which he successfully developed and grew the family run P. Williams Chemists into a £50m plus turnover Group business employing more than 600 staff and including 53 pharmacies, a number of specialist photographic stores and two wholesale pharmacy suppliers in Wigan and Ipswich.
In the Summer of 2006 the P.Williams Group was sold to United Co-operatives Health Limited with whom Steven now sits as a Non-Executive Director of United Health Care.
Since the sale of P.Williams, Steven has established a property and investment business, called Regenesis and a recruitment and locum agency, Healthcare Professional Solutions both based in Nantwich.
Alongside the successful development of the P. Williams Group Steven has for many years been active in pharmacy ‘politics’ at both a local and national level and is still heavily involved as a member of the Pharmaceutical Services Negotiating Committee (PSNC) which is the committee that negotiates retail pharmacies terms and conditions with the Department of Health and the NHS.
Steven was for many years the Vice-Chairman of the PSNC and is Chairman of its Rural Practice Committee and its Funding and Contract Committee for which he led the negotiations with DoH and the NHS for the introduction and funding of the New National Contract for Community Pharmacy worth £1.8 billion in its first year.
Steven is also Chairman of the Association of Independent Multiple Pharmacies (AIMp) which represents the interests of regional multiple pharmacy businesses, such as P.Williams and United Co-operatives Health Care, in discussions with the Government and the NHS.
Commenting on his appointment Steven said “I am very proud and honored to have been asked to become Chairman of the South Cheshire Chamber. I was born in the area and I have lived and worked here all my life. A thriving business community is vital and I am delighted to have been given the opportunity to assist businesses in South Cheshire develop and prosper”.
