The southern professional

Alan & Thomas, with offices located in Bournemouth and Gillingham, exudes professionalism. Whether it is the framed certificates on the wall, the tidy open-planned offices or the vision of their managing director, Julian Boughton, who - at 41 - is surprisingly the oldest person at the firm, this is a broker that means business.

Originally set up as a high-street personal lines and mortgage broker, personal lines now makes up 15% of the business, and Alan & Thomas is heavily into commercial. Summing up where the policies fall, Boughton rattles off a list: "We are strong in construction, motor trade, motor fleet, property owners, leisure, manufacturing and wholesale."

While most of this business is from central and southern England, including insuring AFC Bournemouth - not including free tickets - there is a pharmaceutical company in Strathclyde on their books plus clients in Wales.

Its North Dorset office in Gillingham, set up after acquiring the business of A&E Insurance Brokers in 1994, is well placed for farms in the West Country, and Alan & Thomas offers an agriculture scheme. Since last November, Alan & Thomas has been offering FarmWeb with on-site online quotes from laptops in conjunction with NIG.

The broker also has churches and charities on its books and supports community radio station Hope FM. Contrastingly, it provides for owners of Bentley and Rolls-Royce vehicles, a line of business it plans to develop by advertising in The Sunday Times. In 1990, a local Rolls-Royce dealer approached Alan & Thomas and then, after opening it up to a few dealerships, Cornhill took on the business. Royal & SunAlliance now has the book, and the dealers are introducers rather than appointed representatives.

In May 2005, Alan & Thomas branched out into direct commercial lines across the UK and is looking to set up travel products and golfing offerings from a link on its website.

The broker outsources 'add on' services such as health and safety to firms such as Peninsula and Norwich Union Risk Services.

An interesting marketing tool in which the firm has invested is keyword bidding, which allows the broker to appear high on the list of web browsers when certain words are typed into the search. It has also benefited from joining sites such as yell.com.

Having taken over the reins from founder Phil Thomas four years ago, Boughton has overseen the business double in size.

Boughton says: "In the last five years, we have invested more in our people, training, technology, and have also moved premises."

In April 2005, Alan & Thomas acquired the goodwill of Dorset broker Abrey Beatty, which added around £5m of gross written premium.

"We put together a business plan in 2002 to double the size of premium income within five years and, with the acquisition of the goodwill of Abrey Beatty in Christchurch and rising rates, we managed to achieve that ahead of schedule. It was a well-established broker and we knew about the quality of its clients. It had more property owners' business than us, which we would like to build upon, and this will have a bearing on any future acquisitions."

Rather than resting on this achievement, ambitious Boughton wants to double the size of the business again - achieving a target of £30m GWP within five years. However, he is more interested in increasing profits, something he is determined to achieve.

As well as looking to grow organically, Alan & Thomas - which deals with a dozen insurers - is already turning over more new business this year than last year, it is also looking to grow by acquisition. "We have a short list of 14 businesses and have identified insurance brokers, mainly local to Gillingham and Bournemouth," Boughton says, adding "We hope to start acquiring in the third quarter, and hope to acquire five or six firms within two to three years."

However, in addition to Broughton's drive, he also praises the management team for their part in the firm's success, which he describes as: "The best I have worked with to date". And Boughton realises the importance of keeping in contact with customers, saying: "It is easy to become faceless to a customer, and that is one thing we will never do."

ALAN & THOMAS

Managing director - Julian Boughton

Established - 1975

Number of offices - two

Locations - Bournemouth and Gillingham

Number of staff - 38

Lines of business - Commercial

Gross premium income - £15m.