Broking Success - Stonebridge Corporate: Building fast

In 2005, Ben Burford and Richard Evans decided to make it on their own by setting up their own brokerage, Stonebridge Corporate. Burford was only 27 at the time and was previously a sales manager at Giles' Croydon office; he also helped to set up the consolidator's Crawley branch. Evans had also previously worked at Giles.

Burford says: "It was now or never and I took the opportunity. I have a bit of money and compromised on taking some clients."

The sales duo managed to double the size of its book in 2006 and also sought outside help by appointing finance director Andrew Thumwood, who had previously worked for DHL International. The broker grew a further 50% in 2007, by which point the broker's original Croydon office had become too small for it to accommodate a doubling in staff numbers to 16; a move to new premises in Epsom resolved this issue. Founder Evans resigned in 2008 after a disagreement about the direction that the business should take, though the two remain good friends. Evans is about to set up another broker in Wallington, Sutton.

Settled
After several office moves, Stonebridge Corporate is now in a modern office block 50 metres away from Epsom's high street and close to the train station, which has excellent links to central London. The company is once again considering moving to cope with continuing expansion, though luckily there is more capacity in the office block in which it currently resides.

Stonebridge Corporate took its name from its former office and Burford describes why the founding partners felt it was an apt description of their own business: "We are like a rock for our clients and a bridge to our insurer partners."

In order to help drive the business forward, Burford recruited former Oamps operations director Paul Beck in May, a move that was first announced on PB's website. Beck, with 20 years' industry experience, knows the local broking market extremely well and is a good networker, establishing relationships with some of the key players across the UK market.

Beck is helping to transform the business by means of a sustained push for growth through acquiring teams and small brokers. Already, Stonebridge has made a move for a team in Southampton, taking director Adrian Beale and three others from Bridle Insurance, which has been going on its own acquisition trail in Wales. Since taking on Beale, Stonebridge has signed a lease on an office in Southampton and the team started work there on 1 October.

Stonebridge focuses on the mid-corporate and small and medium-sized enterprise markets and has many contractor and high-risk liability clients placed through Lloyd's syndicates. It also places business with Allianz, Axa, Aviva and Chartis and has just opened an agency with RSA. Burford says: "We prefer high-quality, larger, loyal clients. We have a lost a few smaller scaffolding clients at around the £10,000 premium but this is no bad thing. The change in premium for those with Quinn was large." Quinn appears to have changed many clients' expectations, with clients shocked at the differences in premiums with these insurers perceived as far safer choices.

Despite the recession, the broker managed to grow last year. Burford says: "We were fortunate. We benefited from several rail companies being awarded long-term contracts, while some of our clients that provide services such as signalling and track laying projected some larger turnovers. There is money going back into the rail sector, though we have seen contractors in the house-building sector struggling where turnovers have plateaued or reduced."

Improved risk
Railway contractor safety has improved greatly over the years: 98% now operate in 'green zones', in which normal trains are blocked from using the track. As a result of this change in working practices and the overall soft market, premium rates have "dropped dramatically", according to Burford.

Stonebridge Corporate offers a wide range of insurance for charities, professionals and contractors and it has negotiated a special range called Optimus, which covers directors' and officers', legal expenses and commercial loss recovery.

The office has embraced environmentally friendly features. It has a paperless-office policy that sees each document scanned and then shredded, a move that Beck asserts makes documents easier to access. In addition, the broker provides some members of staff with low-emission vehicles.

Stonebridge Corporate's grand plan for the next five years is to grow to a £5m income business through a mixture of organic growth and acquisitions. With last year's income at £1m, the business is confident of reaching £2m by the end of May 2011. A board has been established to oversee strategic decisions in which justifiably disputing different directors' viewpoints is encouraged. The company has also been in early talks with a bank and is following closely the events of a deal being struck between Macquarie Bank and Aviva regarding broker funding.

Stonebridge Corporate is also investing in telesales, recommendations and e-mail lead generation to aid growth. Like many independent brokers, it is leveraging outside help, becoming one of the first brokers to join Marsh ProBroker, which helps local, independent brokers to access one of the world's largest broking groups.

Although in its early days of transformation, Stonebridge Corporate appears to have a bright future, especially with such a young management team. It will be causing the competition some concern in South-East England.