HIGH praise and high emotion were much in evidence for the Family Business of the Year Award.

Loud applause greeted the announcement that Riccall Care had won the title, in a category where the judges had said the quality of the finalists was undoubtedly the highest ever seen.

They added that in many previous years any of the shortlisted family businesses could have been an outright awards winner.

A clearly shocked Gill Conroy, one of the directors of Riccall Care, said: “I can’t believe it, that social care has won a fantastic award like this.

“It’s really amazing, thank you.”

She said: “It’s just all about people - the clients, the people we look after in their own homes, 100-year-olds, 40-year-olds, people with disabilities, people who depend on us to live their own fantastic lives in their own homes - that’s what keeps us going.”

The company, based at Escrick Business Park, was founded in 1984when Mrs Conroy’s parents sold the family home to open a care home.

It now employs more than 200 people and has three generations of the same family involved in some way with its running.

At Riccall Care they saw first-hand the common family vision and the different generations working together as a team in the growing business, adding that each family member had a clearly defined role.

They understood the issues of succession and transfer of ownership in a way that is fair and would allow the business to move on to the next generation.

The judges also said that York Handmade Brick Company was a real family business with strong values and a passion about developing a manufacturing company making a major contribution to the local community.

At the Upton Group family roles had been clearly defined, and it was an excellent example of a third-generation family enterprise with every chance of going into a fourth generation as a profitable and well-focused concern.