Northern lights.
Martin Hill and Philip Battersby are the team responsible for taking SMG onto better things. Diane Smyth hears how these two bright sparks took a good, but unprofitable, broker and turned it into a lucrative venture.
General insurance broker the Smithson Mason Group is expandingrapidly.
The company's annual turnover has risen from £170,000 in 1982 to over
£5.3m in 2000 and the number of staff ballooned from 20 to 125 during the
same period - 30 of the new employees have been taken on in the last two
years.
The broker opened a new office in its native Leeds last year to
accommodate the extra staff. Clearly visible from a ring road and railway
track, the new office enjoys plenty of free advertising. Such lateral
t
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