Driven to succeed

Carole Nash scooped up two gongs at the British Insurance Awards this year: Personal Lines Broker of the Year and Broking Initiative of the Year. Nash says she was delighted with both, but that being recognised as personal lines broker of the year against companies like the AA was the biggest thrill. "We were pleased to be shortlisted," she said. "We're just a regional broker that set up on the kitchen table."

Nash set up the company in 1985 after being made redundant from the Manchester office of a national insurer. She managed a classic motorcycle scheme at the insurer and negotiated the rights to it before she left.

The broker started with just one insurer but now the company has delegated underwriting authority on most products and rarely needs to contact insurers.

"We've built up trust," says Nash. "The insurers know we've got more underwriting experience in motorcycles than anyone else in the country."

This success has been hard won and Nash says she worked seven days a week for the first 10 years of business. She represented GB bikes in the Worldwide Federation of Historic Vehicles and was the first female president of the Vintage Motorcycle Club.

"I decided to travel around the country to promote the club," she says. "But, of course, in doing so I was also marketing my company. Face-to-face contact is so important. It helps that the company name is my name - people can see they are dealing with a real person."

The company still goes to 17 events a year and is the main sponsor of the Porsche club, taking a vintage Porsche to club events. "We also have a 1948 Morgan three-wheeler that we can take both to classic car and motorcycle events," says Nash. "I'm one of the policyholders. Maybe our quote isn't the most competitive but we've got enthusiasm and service."

Carole Nash now insures 300,000 of the one million bikes on UK roads and employs 430 staff. However, Nash says the personal touch is still essential. "It is not about making x number of calls per day," she says.

"If people want to talk about their bike, let them. This is now called customer relationship management but we've always done it."

Training centre

Nash has realised that the size of her company means the personal touch may not come so easily now, however, and in November invested £500,000 in a training centre to combat the problem. Some 9000ft square and able to train 280 staff simultaneously, the centre can ensure that staff learn the Carole Nash approach. It also puts all its customer facing staff through part one of the Insurance Foundation Certificate, and all directors through parts one and two.

The company has grown rapidly during the past year, taking on 100 new staff and increasing its payroll by 40% from March 2002 to 2003. The Carole Nash brand has expanded into modern bike, classic motor, modern motor and motorcycle travel insurance, and the firm is currently working on a scheme for scooters. Motorcycle still accounts for 80% of the book but Nash believes this will eventually drop to 60%. "You can get to maximum saturation," she says. "But markets like scooters are still relatively untapped."

Nash says she will not extend the business out of its niche, drawing the line at household insurance. "We'd have to start all over again for household," she says. "You can move across from motor to motorbike and still use the same knowledge but household is different."

The company opened a 15-strong office in Dublin in 1999, after realising there was strong market demand for a specialist classic motorcycle policy.

"Irish bikers were approaching me at events on the mainland and asking me to help," says Nash. "They were paying about £1000 a year for policies that categorised classic cars in the same way as modern. Most classic bikes are only taken on the road three or four times a year, so when we entered the market we were able to cut premiums by 75%."

Nash now provides insurance for nearly 50% of the classic bikes in Ireland.

As she points out, however, expanding into Ireland was an unusual step at the time. "We were approached years ago but couldn't do anything until the single market had been established," she says. "But I was the first person - let alone first woman or first broker - to go to Brussels to see what I had to do to open up in Ireland."

The company also achieved another first by setting up a £250,000 motorcycle service and repair centre in 2002. The centre has cut the cost of repairs by an average of 12.5% per case, and the broker has persuaded a network of repairers to agree to the same service across the country.

Cutting costs for insurers, the centres also mean Carole Nash can keep customers' premiums down. Nash says the centres also help ensure customers get good service as it means "we can offer them a one stop shop".

However, Nash insists she has no business acumen, pointing to Damien Keeling, the managing director, as the business brains behind the company.

"He was our accountant but I took him on in 1996 because we had got so big we needed outside help," she says. "I had the insurance experience but had no idea how to structure a company or handle the financial side.

Brokers sometimes forget it, but you need business know-how as well as an understanding of insurance."

CAROLE NASH

Founder: Carole Nash

Established: 1985

Number of offices: two

Locations: Altringham and Dublin

Number of staff: 430

Premium income: £48m.