Hanover succession

While Hanover Park Commercial has lines in truck insurance (through Truckinsure), and funeral directors (through SAIFInsure), it is a business built on property. Owned by Erinaceous, a large property services company, since 2002, Hanover Park has over 1000 appointed representatives and has proved a very profitable acquisition for the group.

"The whole purpose of Erinaceous is to create a one-stop residential and commercial property shop," says Andy Halstead, who was originally recruited by Erinaceous to become sales director at Hanover Park, and has spent most of his life in financial services, including working for AIG in the US. He continues: "We offer management, procurement, residential lettings and insurance services. Hanover Park is different to other brokers because we are only in business to serve Erinaceous. For example, we are not interested in running a motor book."

Hanover Park distributes buildings and contents products for landlords and tenants as well as rent guarantee insurance through 6000 UK letting agents, which deal with tens of thousands of tenants each month.

On the back of that, according to Halstead, the broker sells 8000 rent guarantee insurance policies each month. These policies are sold under the Homelet brand, which Halstead describes as having had an "excellent year" in 2005. He says: "If you are a landlord, you buy the policy and, if the tenant doesn't pay, then we deal with the letting agent. Many landlords do not realise that you need specialist insurance for tenants, whom we then provide with contents insurance."

Another scheme is Letplan, which offers buildings and contents insurance for landlords - or, in marketing language, 'a specialist bespoke insurance for the buy-to-let market' - through insurance and mortgage brokers. Acting as a wholesaler broker, Hanover Park distributes it via 3000 UK brokers. It is a scheme backed by Groupama and Hanover Park has full delegated authority for the book; it has a profit-share scheme with the French insurer. High-profile clients include Martin & Co., Legal & General, under a number of different brands, and Winkworth.

Hanover Park's Deacon brand, a Bournemouth-based specialist in insurance and portfolio cover for blocks of flats, is distributed through thousands of managing companies and agents across the UK.

There is even a (London) West End subsidiary of the group, called Cadogan, which provides insurance to fund managers with property holdings. Halstead notes that investors have become more attracted to property in recent years, driving up opportunities in this sector.

Meanwhile, one of Hanover Park's appointed representatives is Erinaceous-owned Dunlop Haywards, a property services company with offices dotted around England including Manchester, Leeds and London.

Hanover Park can afford the sort of things that other brokers may consider luxuries, such as compliance teams, bonuses for all their staff and plenty of acquisitions (the latest acquisition is Basildon-based Vita, a specialist in blocks-of-flats insurance). Most of its technology is supported in-house, though it maintains a contract with Sirius. All of Hanover Park's administration is handled in Lincoln.

The chief executive's philosophy is 'work hard and play well' and he claims his company is run on a basis of fun, which translates into high staff-retention rates. One of Halstead's jobs as group marketing and sales director is to help integrate the companies under one brand.

Erinaceous, which means "pertaining to the hedgehog" (apparently the founders are fond of hedgehogs) manages a large number of residential and commercial property services, including security and gardening companies, through a variety of acquired firms. It has ambitions to join the FTSE 250 in 2006 and, eventually, the FTSE 100, according to Halstead.

Lettings have become more common as the population increases, house prices rise, buy- to-lets increase in popularity and single-occupancy homes become the norm. The future is looking bright for Erinaceous and Hanover Park Commercial.

HANOVER PARK COMMERCIAL

Chief executive officer: Andy Halstead

Established: 1976

Number of offices: six

Locations: Croydon, London, Lincoln, Bournemouth, Chelmsford and Basildon

Number of staff: 400

Lines of business: Commercial and residential property

Gross premium income: £220m.