Interview: John Page, CEO of DR&P Group on the journey from £3m to £32m Ebitda and the vision for £55m

The business was snapped up by BMS Group in December last year after the deal had been announced in July 2024.

The sale saw European mid-market private equity house Inflexion exit having invested in Southport-headquartered DR&P in 2021.

Under Inflexion’s ownership DR&P actually struck 14 deals, but far from all of these were captured by the press.

Avoiding the tag ‘consolidator’ has been a consistent approach. The theory, rather than shouting about deals, has been to tell people: “We would invest into you, would release the things that had stopped you growing.”

Glass ceiling

In Page’s experience many brokers “hit a glass ceiling” and DR&P’s conversational pitch has been with brokers in the SME space – “with a capital M”.

If you do that right, all your numbers follow on. We are really proud that no one’s left us out of all those deals.

Removing the burdens of compliance, HR and finance are just a few he lists as resulting in those joining businesses being able to “grow your book through providing excellent client service”.

The Inflexion-backed buys tailed off towards the end, with Page acknowledging a “hiatus of 18 months” when DR&P knew that it was going to go to market itself.

“We didn’t feel that was right to start any conversations with any other people,” he says.

Deals

The publicity-shy approach in terms of deals has though subsequently been maintained. According to Page, there have been another 10 with two more currently on the go. This year Insurance Age has reported on four, found through analysis of Companies House documents rather than via DR&P announcements.

They have come with “exactly the same DNA, exactly the same beliefs”, Page, pictured, notes.

DR&P took control of West Yorkshire-based Spedding Goldthorpe (Brokers) in July, and has invested in IFS Risk Solutions, Treelyn (Insurance Services) and Umbrella IS.

In all the cases it never bought up 100% of the shares. This for Page is a key point as “everyone’s aligned on growth, on retention, everyone’s in it together”.

Premium, organic growth and profit

When BMS took over DR&P, including marine global Lloyd’s broker Channing Lucas & Partners bought in 2021, it brought in almost 400 people in 25 offices across the UK and Europe, handling in excess of £620m gross written premiums.

The UK retail arm featuring the likes of SME, mid corporate, private clients and employee benefits is accelerating towards £250m+ of gross written premium.

Buying has helped but returning to the core point of growth, Page calculates current organic growth at 11%.

“We always want to have a minimum of 10% organic growth, a minimum of 10% Ebitda growth,” he confirms on the yearly goals.

The expansion figures have been reflected in the Ebitda soaring from £3m in 2019, through to £32m today.

“We’re going on that journey now to do £55m Ebitda, which we’re confident that we’ll do,” Page states.

Staff

Underpinning it all are staff, it now has around 600 employees. Page stresses on service: “If you do that right, all your numbers follow on.”

He points out: “We are really proud that no one’s left us out of all those deals.” 

Even people who came on board planning to retire have stayed for a few extra years because “they enjoyed themselves” after being “released” from the glass-ceiling administration-pressures of running a business.

In his experience the attrition rate from leavers is only around 3% with part of the reason due to giving people career pathways. Page cites the future leaders programme, now in its third cohort of 12 people, as an example of succession planning and a business where people can “aspire”.

Being part of the wider £9bn GWP BMS empire will help further, he flags, as those coming into the group now have opportunities to work in more specialisms or in international offices.

Owner

BMS – which has private equity backers Eurazeo, British Columbia Investment Management Corporation, and Preservation Capital Partners – has proved to be a beneficial new owner in even more ways, Page argues.

“The fact that [BMS] weren’t in our space was important because we could still do all our growth plans exactly as we wanted,” Page reports.

As a member of BMS’ executive team he has regular interactions with the investors, and group CEO Nick Cook.

Cook, to re-use a phrase, is a “brokers’ broker”, Page recounts. “He’s been a broker all his life. Albeit, we’re in a different space, he understands about broking, he understands about insurer relationships. He understands about clients.

“It’s been a great move for us.”

Opportunities

As already referenced, DR&P is now on the “other side of the fence” from its sale negotiations.

Maintaining organic growth will be to the fore. This, Page says, starts with retention, which generally sits at around 95%. His mantra is of “positive client outcomes” – namely “how you face up to that client, you want to give yourself the maximum opportunity of retaining that client and doing your business”.

And again BMS’ ownership will play a crucial role. The wider group can “drop” in business that it would not have had a home for and likewise DR&P can send leads to its parent that previously it may not have been able to deliver on.

“We’ve done some good work with that already,” Page says of the two-way street, predicting “more opportunities to come”.

Regional

But more deals will also be part of the equation. Being part of BMS has “caused no problems whatsoever” when talking to potential vendors, Page assesses.

Those deals will involve broadening DR&P’s regional footprint.

“We’re originally a northern powerhouse. That’s how we positioned ourselves,” Page recalls adding it is now “coming down” the country.

For example the recent Treelyn deal was in Northampton and Umbrella’s head office is in Brentford.

“We’re looking in the South West and the South East,” Page maps out. “We’ve got opportunities there.”

However he underlines, while geography is of interest, the drive is for specialisms and the “people and teams” rather than striking a deal just for the sake of it.

Brands

So far DR&P has built a roster of 35 brands across a double-digit number of offices.

Treelyn’s include Insurance World which according to its website has services spanning personal and commercial including hair, beauty and tanning insurance; fish & chip shop insurance; nightclub insurance as well as contractors, fleet, commercial combined and more.

Not to mention Tattoo Insure, which is one that Page will not be changing. The philosophy is simple, face up to the clients and know what resonates. In a specialist niche there can be no debate about this being the right way forwards. Page says it can be equally true for an SME broker that has “50 or 60 years brand recognition” in its particular space.

Though the sweet spot for the buys in the future will be commercial brokers with £10m GWP Page is comfortable with smaller transactions: “We’re happy to do those deals because we feel that we can give those brokers great support and help them.”

In the main the history of buying has been about 60% of deals struck on an exclusive basis without other potential buyers involved. This has shifted to around 50/50, Page reveals adding on volumes “we’re still really keen and active”.

Claims

As evidence by its track record – high net worth specialist Dover Street Insurance Brokers was bought in July 2024, “we’re one of the largest private client brokers in the UK” – and recent additions DR&P is not shy about buying specialists.

Where it also likes to stand out is on claims. It has 18 staff working on claims in the UK retail team and four claims executives.

“We do claims analysis, and we’ve got a risk management team as well. For us that’s really important,” Page says.

Start

DR&P was set up in 1977 and Page joined in 1993 after nine years working at Royal Insurance.

The broker backed him to open an office above a takeaway with one colleague, Cathy Pritchard, who is still in the business as operations and compliance manager.

Client service is “what we talked about and did” he remembers on joining the broker. After the expansion over the years as well as working on the business he still runs a £1m book.

“For me that works well,” he explains.

“When I’m speaking to people, I can empathise and understand exactly what we’re going through … whether insurer X, Y or Z has done this, or not. I understand all of that.”

Future

Building the business with colleagues is something that he is “proud” of, he still loves the role and is keen to celebrate its new home with certainty that more growth is on the horizon.

“It’s been a great story so far,” Page concludes.

“We still feel that there’s a bit to go. And also we know that Nick and the BMS team feels the same.”

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