Broking success: Ancient and modern

▶ What is the history of Autoline?

Autoline as a broker will have been in business for 40 years this year and I have been with the company for 30 of those. That’s quite a long time – as someone said to me a while ago, ‘it’s equivalent to two life sentences’. We started life as a small personal lines broker based in Newry where we still have our head office. Gradually we expanded into business insurance.

I was given the opportunity to buy the business in 1996 from the founder Peter McEvoy. We originally traded as Peter McEvoy Insurance Services but rebranded to Autoline in about 1993-94. 

▶ How have you seen the company grow?

We were used to achieving 20-25% year-on-year growth up until about 2006. At that stage we thought we would look at some acquisitions to re-balance the portfolio as it had got very personal lines dominant. We completed a number of acquisitions in 2008 which has left us with five offices across Northern Ireland.

▶ Which businesses did you acquire and why were they attractive?

One of the businesses was James Campbell and Sons who were based in Coleraine. They had a reputation as a very successful local broker and also had a strong market in classic car insurance which they operated on a UK and Ireland-wide basis. There was a good mix of commercial and the specialism of the classic cars and they also had an agricultural end which we weren’t particularly strong in. We felt it was a good fit and opened up new markets to us. We also bought two businesses of a similar size, one in Ballymena and one in Downpatrick.

▶ What areas of business does Autoline now cover? 

We have three divisions: personal, commercial and financial services. Personal lines makes up about 55% of the [GI]business, commercial 45% while financial services sits outside as a separate business. It trades as Ashtree Financial Services. So we have currently got 170 staff across our five locations and we’re managing about £40m in premium.

▶ How did you get into insurance?

I started out in the civil service after my A levels. I followed in my father’s footsteps. I got a good grounding in admin but, in terms of excitement, I felt quite quickly that the role wasn’t very stretching. They were good in allowing us time to do external study, so I did a business course and soon realised it sounded a lot more interesting. I moved across to insurance starting in financial services and then on to managing a brokerage. I started here at Autoline in Newry. 

▶ Do you like to keep a local focus? 

We’ve found that we can always employ the people we need from the local area. The calibre and loyalty of our people are what has helped the business become a success. In some respects it is more akin to a family business. 

▶ Which insurers do you work with?

I think it’s fair to say our book of business is fairly evenly spread among the major corporates and some facilities into Lloyd’s. It’s been a deliberate strategy to be a key broker with each of the main composites.
We don’t have an over-dependence on any
one insurer as we feel that’s a healthier
place to be. 

▶ How well do insurers serve the Northern Ireland market?

I think different insurers are in different places on this. A lot of the underwriting is being devolved more and more to brokers on the SME side. 

We are seeing new initiatives which use technology to allow us to price more risks more quickly, for example Zurich ZTrade and other extranet systems. More of that sort of SME is being traded online. Technology has bridged the gap when insurers have moved.

It’s more the larger corporates and larger risks where the decision making is going back to head office but it’s very easy to get hold of people via email and we do find ourselves doing more conference calls these days – it gets you there in the end.

▶ What areas are you targeting for growth at Autoline?

Telematics is a big area for us. We started that journey in 2011. We’ve developed an app for drivers that monitors them and helps reward them for good driving. 

Looking further afield we see opportunities in the Great Britain and Republic of Ireland markets as well. We have been looking for the right opportunity to get into both of those. GB is a much bigger market opportunity at the moment – we are looking for acquisitions that are good a fit for the business. Our older acquisitions are very much bedded in and the time is right to move again. 

▶ Which areas would be the best fit – personal or commercial lines?

We are probably feeling that the commercial side is more attractive from an acquisition perspective. 

We have a strong personal lines model and we feel confident we can grow this organically. If we do acquire it’s more likely to be in commercial.

▶ Are buying habits in Northern Ireland different to Great Britain?

Yes. Here people still like to know who
they are buying from and a locally-owned business probably has an advantage. We can do it online but also face-to-face, so they can come and see us if there is an issue. People get fed up with the impersonal nature of insurance buying.

▶ Who is your biggest competitor?

Hughes has been bought recently by Liberty and in some ways that has changed their position in the marketplace. As an independent broker we can offer a wide range of choice. Perhaps a broker owned by an insurer is limiting the buying choice a customer is looking for. We have the usual challenges from the direct writers – some of whom are on our panel of insurers. 

▶ How important is it to be independent?

Being independent and having a choice of insurers is essential. I think our staff like that. Staying independent is a priority. I don’t see any disadvantages. It’s about the breadth of the market offering for our customers. I’d never say ‘never’ to selling but it’s not something that’s on the agenda at all.

▶ What was the impact of the Troubles?

Insurance premiums here were higher than they were for the rest of the UK as a result of the Troubles. We had a small number of players who were successful in Northern Ireland and I think it was the instability that put people off. Some of those pricing anomalies probably still exist and premiums are still higher than the mainland, about 10% higher than in central London.

▶ What’s the future for Autoline?

We are convinced there is a bright future for telematics in private and commercial motor and we have gained a lot of expertise in that area. We were the first in Europe to launch an app. I think it’s going to be a growing sector of the UK market and we want to play our part in that marketplace. We’ve even employed a data scientist in-house to look at how we are managing the data and they can dissect it and produce a report in the way insurers want to see it. It’s a good route for us into the GB market. 

I also think the SME market is ripe for further development. I think you will see a change in how we package an offering for these owners. Perhaps the brokers who are in personal lines and understand how to extract efficiencies will find it quite easy to transfer that to SME business.