Fee and Commission income (2000): £13.4m
Pre-tax profit (2000): £ 1.1m (pre-tax and amortisation of goodwill)

Address:
51 Lincoln's Inn Fields
London
WC2A 3LZ
Tel:

Fee and Commission income (2000): £13.4m
Pre-tax profit (2000): £ 1.1m (pre-tax and amortisation of goodwill)

Address:
51 Lincoln's Inn Fields
London
WC2A 3LZ
Tel: 0870 160 0201
Fax: 020 7831 8278
Email: charles.whitfield@layton-blackham.co.uk
Website: layton-blackham.com

History: Formed in 1984 in Covent Garden, Layton Blackham believes it has broken the mould of the traditional insurance broker.

Elite Policies, the underwriting arm of the LB group, was born in 1988 and now administers a wide range of commercial package policies on behalf of the major UK insurers. Business first is its "direct" division which was launched in 1995.

Layton Blackham launched the Quantum Leap acquisition strategy in 1997, and has since acquired 15 brokers. The group operates from 14 offices throughout the UK and has 324 staff.

Chief officer: Christopher Blackham
Biography: Prior to entering the insurance business, Blackham taught water-skiing in Europe. He set up Layton Blackham in 1984 in Covent Garden, from where the group still trades.
Major shareholders: Christopher Blackham 100% ords

Main lines of business: Corporate, commercial package, property owners, high net worth Individuals and financial services

Special schemes: Elite Policies - broad range of commercial packages including traders, combined, retail, licensed premises, property owners, blocks of flats, motor traders and professional indemnity

Number of UK branches: 14
Number of employees (average for 2000): 324

Greatest technological advance: Layton Blackham has changed to a single unified operating system, Microsoft NT, and pursued a policy of only utilising software which can be deployed over a thin client infrastructure using the Citrix Metaframe add-on. This has enabled them to concentrate on in-house skills and become virtually independent of third-party vendors and external support agreements.