Envest Group (Envest), an insurance investment group that is now part of The Ardonagh Group (Ardonagh), has acquired a majority stake in Wellington Underwriting Agencies (Wellington).
Founded by Brian Atkin (pictured) and Colin Cowden in 2018, Wellington is a specialist property, liability, and labour hire agency. Since its establishment, the agency has quickly gained traction despite a shrinking market and the challenges of starting a new customer-focused business during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Wellington is a great success story,” Atkin said. “We are a solutions-oriented business that supports the quality distribution of insurance products for complex risks. Our experienced team and our focus on building long-standing relationships with our brokers and underwriting partners are the key to our success, and during COVID, that was almost impossible with site visits, expos, and conferences shut down and Lloyd’s remediating their book at the same time. But the value we bring to the market was seen anyway, word spread about what we were doing, and as a result, our growth has been exponential.”
Wellington has over $30 million gross written premium (GWP), a national footprint, and 13 staff, including current shareholders and specialist underwriting managers Kevin Corkery, Megan Sheehan, Peter Gibb, and Rob Hunt.
Richard Heilig, chief commercial officer and head of agencies at Envest, said Wellington extends the group’s expertise around property, liability, and labour hire and boosts its brokers’ ability to place difficult and complex risks for their customers.
“Our agency strategy has always been to invest in businesses with the right people with specialist expertise and empower their growth through an owner-driver model and shared back-of-house support,” he said.
Atkin added: “This is a great opportunity for us to join a family who shares our values and can provide us with the support we need to continue to prolong our service-driven advice model and continue our growth.”
The acquisition follows shortly after changes in Envest’s management team, including appointing a new chief investment officer.
