11.Hill House Hammond

Fee and commission income (2002): £76.6m

Pre-tax profit (2002): £2.4m

Address:
Hill House,
Lewins Mead
Bristol BS1 2LL

Tel: 0117 929 2906

Fax: 0117 925 2337

Email: info@hhh.co.uk

Website: www.hhh.co.uk

Year established: 1959

History: Based in Bristol, the company was founded in 1959 under the name of Hill House. Initial branches included Havant, Nottingham, London, Leeds and, with the opening of the Severn Bridge, Wales.

In 1983, Hill House was bought by Hill Samuel through its Lowndes Lambert subsidiary, which had previously sold personal lines insurance under the L Hammond name. This resulted in the merger of names to form Hill House Hammond (HHH). By 1991, HHH had a network of 133 branches when it was purchased by Norwich Union.

Hill House Hammond has a keen involvement in sporting sponsorship and is proud to be current title sponsor of the Elf/HHH Super One British Karting Championships and the PCA Zone 6 Challenge and Masters cricket series.

Today, HHH has over 240 branches and 2,000 staff.

Major shareholder: Aviva

Main lines: Personal lines including specialist home and motor, marine, caravan, pets, travel. Commercial for small to medium-sized businesses up to larger concerns

UK branches: 240 personal lines plus two personal lines call centres; 10 business (commercial) centres plus one business call centre

UK employees: 2,100

Chief officer: Eric Galbraith, managing director

Biography: Eric Galbraith was appointed managing director of Hill House Hammond in November 2000.

He began his career in 1965, working for Bowring and then the Marsh Organisation in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London. In 1992, he returned to Scotland with Marsh and in 1994 was head-hunted to join the Royal Bank of Scotland.

There, he was managing director of RBIS Ltd and RBIS (IFA) Ltd. Over the six years with the Royal Bank, the insurance broking arm grew from a profit of just over £3m to almost £30m.