Mike Bottle: Arch’s UK regional MD on bringing international scale to bear

Insurer Arch’s UK regional division, which falls under the Arch Insurance International business, is just one frond of a global behemoth.

The Arch Capital Group, of which Arch Insurance International is a segment, is a US-based financial institution worth over £25.6bn. It posted gross written premium (GWP) of £16.2bn for insurance, reinsurance and mortgages in the 12 months to 31 December 2024. 

And while the firm has long-standing international scale, its operations in the UK regional market are relatively new, with the segment being spun up in 2019 via the acquisition of the UK commercial lines underwriting segments of The Ardonagh Group, including Geo Underwriting, Fusion, Arista and Towergate Commercial Underwriting.

Since this launch in 2019, the insurer’s UK regional arm had been led by UK regions chief executive Steve Bashford. But, when Bashford announced his retirement in January 2025, the business confirmed that it had appointed “natural successor” Mike Bottle as the division’s new managing director.

Bottle has spent the last six years as senior vice-president for the UK division and worked closely with Bashford across the lifetime of the business. 

He tells Insurance Times: ”There was a plan for Bashford to retire – we started the division together in 2019, so I’m delighted that I’m continuing on at a great time within Arch because there’s an awful lot going on in the wider company.” 

Bottle says he has no plans to dramatically move away from the strategy that he and Bashford created together, but notes that his appointment represents a new period in the young business’ development. 

He explains: ”That first five or six years was about establishing brand proposition and I don’t want to undermine anything we’ve done there.

”Looking ahead, it’s more the general evolution of a business that’s now matured and making more of the fact that we are part of Arch Insurance International and the Arch Capital Group.

”Throughout my career, I’ve always had an eye on distribution, so that theme continues. There’s no need for any major change in strategy – it’s now more about building on what we have achieved in the first five years.

“I want brokers in the UK to feel that they are dealing with something that has scale. We are looking at some of the specialist lines that we write in London and how we can provide access to them for brokers in the regions, which is something I’ll be majoring on.” 

Leveraging scale

As the Arch UK regional business has matured, Bottle says that its focus has remained strongly on providing a consistent level of service to brokers based on their stated needs, rather than overstretching the firm’s service standards. 

Indeed, in the latest Five Star Rating Report: Commercial Lines 2024/25, published by Insurance Times in March 2025, Arch Insurance achieved a five star rating from brokers for its service for a third consecutive year, with top scores for relationship management, overall underwriting experience and policy documentation.

Bottle explains: ”We’ve always made it very clear that we can’t be all things to all men and that we have to be very clear on our distribution strategy.

“There are significantly bigger players out there in the UK regions that have been doing it for much longer than us, but I think what brokers really want is clarity around appetite – scale isn’t necessarily the issue there, it’s consistency.”

With this foundation, Bottle notes that Arch is also differentiating itself by leveraging the scale of the wider international business – particularly around the specialist underwriting services it can provide from its presence in the London market. 

While regional brokers will know the Arch regional team best for its core lines of business combined, property owners, motor trade and motor fleet, Bottle says that one of his focuses now he is at the helm is to scale up the insurer’s initiative to bring specialty London market products – like terrorism, marine cargo and intellectual property – to regional brokers. 

He explains: ”That complex product, liability led case is typically traded in London, through London market brokers and there can be an element of the regional brokers losing a bit of control around that.

“What we’re offering is that those brokers can trade that business in our regional offices with our underwriters, who are trained and equipped to handle it. Regional brokers may not see a lot of that sort of business, but when they do have it and it’s wrapped around a big client of theirs, we want them to think of Arch.”

This evolution is part of what Bottle describes as his focus for the new role, adding that it also provides benefits to brokers in terms of claims experience and having a single point of contact. 

He adds: “We are definitely trying to scale that proposition up and, at the moment, we’ve got the expertise and the products. Have we cracked the distribution element of it quite yet? Not exactly, so the focus over the next year to 18 months is to build out that connectivity.” 

Regional reorganisation

Another aspect of Arch’s strategy under the leadership of Bottle has been to amend the organisational structure of its regional offices. 

The UK regional arm of Arch comprises of 10 offices across the country, which Bottle says the company has no plans to add to.

However, he does note that work over the last couple of years has seen the insurer identify and move to more appropriate premises in some locations, while also making sure all branches are fully staffed and trained to “futureproof for growth”. 

Soon into Bottle’s tenure as leader, in February 2025, Arch’s regional business announced a number of promotions and the launch of a new regional structure. As part of this, the insurer organised its 10 locations into four regions.

Ian Grundy, Janice Mullan, Tony O’Reilly and Janine Starkie were promoted to regional manager positions for the Midlands and south west, south and Thames Valley, London and the Home Counties and the north and Scotland, respectively.

Bottle explains that this change was “one of the first things” he did in response to what the firm had identified about the broker market. 

He says: ”What we’re acutely aware of is the changing landscape of broker placement – many brokers, especially the larger ones, have gone to a regional model as well, so we have reflected that in our own structure and adapted our business to align as best as we think we can with those brokers’ own strategies.”

This adaptation in reaction to a changing environment for distribution, as well as a focus on servicing brokers how they like to be serviced, is a key tenet of both Bottle and Arch’s strategy going forward. 

Emphasising this, he says: “You’ve got to be committed to the proposition because if you lose sight of what the broker wants, then you very quickly lose momentum. 

”We’re absolutely a long-term player in this market, so we’ve got to make sure brokers know where we stand and that we will work with them if they’re coming under pressure.”