All Features articles – Page 19
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Features
Top 50 Brokers 2011: 31st Adrian Flux
Management: The Norfolk-based broker founded in 1973 by Adrian Flux was taken over by his son David in 1999. Expertise: Providing cover for all unusual vehicles, ranging from classic and vintage cars through to heavily modified sports cars and caravans, Adrian Flux is the UK’s largest specialist motor insurance broker. ...
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Features
Top 50 Brokers 2011: 37th Besso Holdings
Management: Michael Wade became the firm’s executive chairman after buying 15% of Besso in April, making it majority owned by management. He teamed up with private equity firm BP Marsh to buy a 37.3% stake owned by US bank Wells Fargo.Strategy: Besso is aiming to boost revenues – which were ...
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Features
Top 50 Brokers 2011: 36th Windsor
Management: Windsor delisted following a £33.7m management buyout in 2007. The firm’s chief executive is John Bennett. Expertise: Windsor has six offices in the UK providing an extensive range of services to clients in sectors such as sports, diving, cargo, equine, law, media, pharmaceuticals and renewable energy.Windsor BranchesView Windsor in ...
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Features
Top 50 Brokers 2011: 38th Newman Martin and Buchan
Management: Employee-owned NMB has grown organically since its launch in 1987 under chairman Gordon Newman. Expertise: Founded as an energy broker, it has expanded into marine, non-marine and reinsurance. It converted to limited liability partnership status in 2009.Newman, Martin and Buchan branchesView Newman, Martin and Buchan in a larger map
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Features
Top 50 Brokers 2011: 39th Carole Nash
Management: Restructuring under chief executive David Newman in April cut nine senior positions at the Groupama-owned broker, but three senior manager posts were created and two business change consultants added. Strategy: The restructure is part of a plan to diversify the business away from the motorcycle market, which is being ...
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Features
Top 50 Brokers 2011: 41st Cobra Insurance
Management: Cobra is “well placed to ride out the current market conditions”. So said chief executive Steve Burrows at the end of last year, after it posted a 14% increase in pre-tax profits to £390,000 for the six months to September 30, and a 2.1% revenue rise to £11.98m.Strategy: Cobra ...
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Features
Top 50 Brokers 2011: 43rd Lark Group
Management: Lark Group’s top team comprises chairman Graham Lark, managing director Stephen Lark, commercial director Mark Woodward and private client director David Foster. Seven members of the Lark family have worked for the firm since it launched in 1948. Groupama bought a majority stake in 2007.Strategy: Stephen Lark is poised ...
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Features
Top 50 Brokers 2011: 44th Abbey Protection Plc
Management: “Better than expected” was managing director Chris Ward’s assessment of Abbey’s performance in 2010. The legal and professional fees broker increased after-tax profits by 8% and revenues by 6% compared with 2009. Strategy: The growth was mainly thanks to both the legal and tax consultancy areas. Insurance in 2010.Abbey ...
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Features
Top 50 Brokers 2011: 45th Henderson Insurance
Management: Bolshy chief executive Joe Henderson insists the acquisitive firm is “honest” rather than “aggressive”, as some have branded it. Strategy: Henderson is in the market for a merger. Having maintained its position in the top 50 after entering the rankings last year, it now generates annual revenue of more ...
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Features
Top 50 Brokers 2011: 47th Oxygen Insurance
Management: In June Oxygen’s founder Ian Lloyd reported an 86.5% profit drop in 2010 to £95,229 from £707,398 in 2009. Big story: Amid takeover rumours, Oxygen’s 21-strong London market team joined Arthur J Gallagher International in August, in a deal whose terms were not disclosed. This follows Oxygen’s sale of ...
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Features
Top 50 Brokers 2011: 46th Ageas
Management: Under chief executive Barry Smith, the revenue of the UK retail broking division of insurer Ageas doubled to £50.8m in the first quarter of 2011. The division made a profit of £4.7m, up slightly on Q1 2010’s £4.4m.Strategy: The acquisition of Castle Cover for £53m in March has pulled ...
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Features
Top 50 Brokers 2011: 48th AHJ Holdings
Management: Hugh Price became chairman and chief executive of the firm in 1996, having been with the business since its 1973 launch. Expertise: Alwen Hough Johnson is a Lloyd’s broker specialising in all forms of marine and non-marine reinsurance and some specialist lines of direct insurance. It offers a range ...
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Features
Top 50 Brokers 2011: 49th Berry Palmer & Lyle
Management: Under chairman Charles Berry, Lloyd’s broker BPL Global achieved almost 48% growth in income in 2009, which brought it into the Top 50 Brokers at number 49. It continues to grow, opening a Hong Kong office in February. Expertise: Formed in 1983 and based in London and Paris, Berry ...
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Features
Top 50 Brokers 2011: 23rd Brightside
Management: Broking group Brightside, which owns Group Direct, took an unorthodox approach to expanding its insurer panel this summer. Two of its three co-founders – chief executive Arron Banks and chief financial officer Paul Chase-Gardener, who chairs Group Direct – took stakes in an unnamed insurance company.Expertise: Group Direct comprises ...
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Features
Top 50 brokers 2011: 42nd Lonmar
Management: Just 18 months after becoming chief executive in January 2008, Simon Rice led a management buyout from AXA. This year he sold the firm’s liability and affinity portfolio to Gallagher UK.Big story: Lonmar Global Risks lost a legal battle over poaching against Tyser & Co in November 2010. Lonmar ...
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Features
Top 50 brokers 2011: 50th OAMPS
Management: UK managing director David Barrett runs the company for parent Wesfarmers Insurance, which operates in Australia, New Zealand and the UK, having been formed in 1914 as a Western Australian farmers’ co-operative.Strategy: Growth is planned through acquisitions and recruitment. The most recent was Giles’s life sciences book, purchased in ...
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Features
Top 50 Brokers 2011: 2nd JLT Group
Management: We suspect chief executive Dominic Burke may pop a champagne cork or two after elbowing his way into the top three from fourth last year. This breaks the decade-long stranglehold of Marsh and Willis in second and third positions below the ever-dominant Aon. It’s been a long road: ...
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Features
Top 50 Brokers 2011: 1st AON
Management: Chief executive Rob Brown has spent much of the past year dodging flak over his new commission charge and the continuing controversy over Aon’s Global Risk Insight Platform (GRIP), a database of client information that insurers pay to access. Brown is a tough customer and, accordingly, Aon retains poll ...
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FeaturesThe people: The stars
Would you rather work for Greg Case or Lord Alan Sugar? This could be your chance to find out
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Features
Opportunities: Maximising profits in a soft market
Be ruthless about ditching any marketing strategies that are not paying for themselves. Keeping customers saves the investment needed to attract new ones, and creating new services as they need them will boost profits
