Chief executive: Gilles Normand
Brokerage: £285.1m
Management
Gilles Normand is now well into his second year running household name broker Swinton and is diligently continuing predecessor Christophe Bardet’s work of putting the high street broker’s past behind it after its hefty £7.4m mis-selling fine from the FCA in 2013.
The tough economic environment and the continuing shift of personal lines insurance online has made an already difficult job even harder, and so Normand has had to make some tough decisions. These include the plan to close 130 branches by mid-2017.
Inevitably the changes have meant people moves. High street rival A-Plan poached Swinton’s mergers and acquisitions head Jonathan Hartley in October 2015.
Chief information officer Ian Chapple and marketing director Gerald McLarnon left at the end of 2015.
In February 2016, Swinton hired former Arthur J Gallagher executive Tony Monnington as commercial head.
Strategy
Swinton may be cutting branches, but it is not turning its back on the high street. It is revamping its branches to make them more customer- and staff-friendly, and has used its Preston branch as a pilot for this.
It re-opened the overhauled branch in June.
The company has recognised the online shift and is aiming to be accessible to customers online and over the phone as well as through its traditional branch network.
The company has also recognised that it needs greater technological firepower to achieve its multi-channel plans, and so has hired software house CDL to replace its old systems.
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