Broking success – Wilby: To Halifax and beyond

In the last four years, managing director Richard Blackburn has overseen a doubling of GWP and income at Wilby. Rather than developing any kind of complacent ego he remains focused on doing the same again. He says: "In the next two years we are looking to grow by 20% on GWP and income, and by 2015 we want to be above £25m GWP."

Blackburn, along with two colleagues, bought the business from founder Peter Wilby in August last year. It was the culmination of a succession plan which had seen him join from JLT in June 2006. Peter remains on the board as nonexecutive chairman with a minority stake.

The process meant Blackburn knew the business inside out by the time of completion, although the timing did present its own challenges coming at the height of the credit crunch. Most banks appeared not to understand broking when he was looking for funding - but one stood out. He remembers: "Funding was challenging but Macquarie set themselves out from the rest of the finance providers as they understood our business."

In the town of Halifax, home to the former building society now part of Lloyds via HBOS, Provident and SSP among others, financial services have long been an important driver in the local economy. Wilby, which has grown its staff from 29 when Blackburn joined to 48 today, has built its success by servicing local clients within an hour's drive of the town along with national niche products.

Caravan Guard, launched in 1995, has now been spun off into a separate company owned by Peter Wilby servicing personal lines accounts. The company still owns the award-winning Dealer Guard which followed in September 2005 to meet the bespoke needs of caravan and motor homes dealers who previously had been treated like car dealerships. Underwritten by Axa within two years, it had grown to cover 60 dealerships representing 12.5% of the market and now has 130 clients.

Specialist focus
The focus on specialist lines continued with Park Protect in 2006. Blackburn is proud of the dominant position Dealer Guard has built in the market and keen to achieve the same with Park Protect. He says: "It is a commercial insurance product for caravan and holiday parks. There are two dominant players out there, JLT and Towergate, but with 4,500 parks in the country there is plenty to go at." the broker also offers a further scheme focused on motorbike dealers.

The complementary prong of the drive to double again by 2015 is to expand its reach from the local area. Where once the area was heavily industrial with textiles and engineering, it now has a full cross section including the service industry, food, construction and transport. Wilby services clients predominantly paying premiums ranging from £10,000 to £500,000. Blackburn accepts that the corporate business has been difficult to grow in the recession but his success in delivering a 10% increase at a time when clients were ceasing to trade or squeezing their budgets makes him confident about the future.

"We want to be a strong independent broker. Our roots are in Halifax but we want to write business beyond that. Into the north of England from Sheffield to Newcastle, we can happily service clients very well," he says.

It is a continuation of the expansion plans he undertook at the start of the recession when he decided to favour bravery over fear. "You can either retrench and start cutting costs or look to grow. The business is on a stronger footing than it was at the beginning of the recession because we've invested in the niche areas and corporate business," he says.

Part of the success has also been due to its approach to marketing. He praises Peter Wilby for writing the approach into the very DNA of the company and plans to maintain the drive having recently doubled the marketing team to four. In addition to working with local newspapers, rugby clubs, hospice and community foundation, Wilby sponsors nearby Huddersfield Town.

For Blackburn, a lifelong fan, it is not just a question of publicity from having the company's logo on the shirts. He says: "It has created business opportunities and we can take clients. The brand is promoted at all [home] games with advertising around the ground. Our logo is linked on their internet and email publications."

Over the past two years, client retention has been approaching 95%. He has also bolstered the cross selling of the risk management service: "We have three risk management consultants available to clients. It is predominantly health and safety led." According to Blackburn, the risk management business had its best year ever last year with its offering allowing for fee based or commission based charging structures.

Service is a recurring theme. The broker provides an in-house claims service including a chartered loss adjuster for all clients which Blackburn is pleased to say regularly receives "great" feedback. He sums up service as: "You get back to clients quickly, give them accurate and complete documentation and you deal with the claims quickly and fairly."

He is quick to point out that it is a team effort. Recently all staff were offered the opportunity to complete professional qualifications with the Chartered Insurance Institute and many have gone
on to further exams. "We want to invest in our people because you are only as good as your team. The better qualified they are the better they can service our clients, the better the proposition to put to new customers and when recruiting," he says.

Professionalism
Blackburn is a clear supporter of the CII. Wilby was one of the first 57 brokers to sign the Aldermanbury Declaration and is also in the process of achieving chartered status. He says: "You've got to continually look to improve the professionalism of the industry: it can only help to do that."

The company is also a Brokerbility member. He enjoys the club approach of being able to contact other members for advice along with the regional meetings and forums. Access to insurers was also key. He explains: "We had good relationships at local level but needed a bit more clout. Brokerbility gives you access further up that line."

One thing is clear, he has no intention of sacrificing the independent status of the broker. He concludes: "There's never been a better time to be an independent broker. We've got something different to offer. As the consolidators come together the one thing that seems to suffer is service. There has been a lot of consolidation in this area which have presented opportunities. It has certainly been fertile territory for us."

Blackburn knows that, with brokers aplenty in nearby Manchester and Leeds, doubling the business again will not happen just by wishing for it but, with a record of success, he can be justifiably confident of achieving it.