Biba 2026: Kayzen Specialty targets £35m GWP despite prolonged soft market concerns

Kayzen Specialty is targeting £35m in gross written premium (GWP) despite concerns that the soft market could persist long-term.

Speaking to Insurance Times during the Biba Conference 2026, chief executive Charles Boorman said that the firm will “pounce” on opportunities as it arises but warned there is “no point” looking for growth if the softening market continues.

He added that there is potential for additional offerings under the Kayzen Specialty banner that could help it reach the £35m GWP target.

He continued: “We could potentially in five or 10 years’ time have a number of other speciality classes of business under the Kaysen Speciality banner.

“That would have to sit on top of the existing strategy and make sense commercially.”

But Boorman believes that there is not “much sense in planning too far ahead”.

“The wonderful thing about this is that there’s a certain fluidity in what happens next,” he added.

“At the moment, we’re just executing on our plan. But, in any business things may happen that open a few doors and then, of course, you hopefully pounce on it at the time.”

In a market where premium and the renewal rate is slipping, Boorman also explained that it was essential for firms “to walk away from business” that is “underpriced” or “outside of the sweet spot” and look after the ideal business.

He continued: “If we can continue to be responsive to brokers then the business that we’ve got tends to stay with us and we can always pick up the business from others.

“It takes a bit of adapting to operating in a soft market, but it quickly becomes the norm because we’re so used to it.”

What will end the soft market?

Previous market corrections had often been triggered by major events and led to “bigger players pulling out of the market”, Boorman explained.

However, he said there is currently little indication of that happening.

He continued: “The margins aren’t necessarily there and people begin to realise that instead of next year going on a 20% growth trajectory top line, that they’re quite happy to maintain or even cut their top line.

“And then I think when those decisions are made in the round, some markets might begin to slow down. So that’s a gentler way of this [market change] happening. But you do need quite a lot of those markets to do that at the same time or a similar time for it to have much more effect.”

In the meantime, Boorman added that “the key thing for underwriters is to ensure that you are still just executing on your strategy” rather than loosening terms to retain business.

He continued: “It will be interesting to see how people’s underwriting of each individual risk changes as the market softens to retain that business because you retain it on price, relationship and wording.

”And that’s not just retention, that’s also new business as well. How far are people going to go to get that business and at what cost?”