“Since the acquisition of IBNA there’s been a void in the market, and it’s time for a cluster that’s 100% focussed on independent brokers.”
That was the assertion made by Broker Co-op founding member Charles Gow-Gates (pictured) when Insurance Business caught up with the Barrack Broking director to talk about his week-old broking cluster. Launched on April 20, Broker Co-op is essentially a buying group set up as a cooperative with all members on equal footing.
Gow-Gates explained: “It’s a group of brokers that come together to purchase core services, so there’s nothing that links the equity investment in their businesses and they don’t work under a common brand or a common license. The actual entity that will be the cluster group will be a cooperative, and so when you join as a member you become a shareholder of the cooperative.
“And the way cooperatives work is each member has one share – so, it’s one member, one vote, and one share. It provides a voice to everyone; it doesn’t matter whether your business is 10 times bigger than the other broker. Everyone has a say in what services are important.”
So far, more than 20 independent brokers have expressed interest by completing the application form on the Broker Co-op website. Gow-Gates said the response has been very positive.
So how did Broker Co-op, which is touted as Australia’s first cooperative broking cluster, come about?
“It’s something I’ve been talking about with other independent brokers, to gauge whether or not they’re interested and whether they feel that there is a space in the market for something like this, and what sort of services should be provided,” noted Gow-Gates.
“And all of them say the same thing – that it’s something that’s been missing from the market and it’s something they’re interested in. In fact, there’s only one other option. We just didn’t see a cluster that aligned to our values, and so we decided to create one.”
Independent insurance brokers in Australia who wish to become founding members have until July 31 to apply via www.broker.coop. It was highlighted that members, who will have access to a full suite of key broking business services at no cost, will also not pay joining or annual membership fees.
At the centre of Broker Co-op is the so-called ‘power by numbers’.
Gow-Gates told Insurance Business: “We’ll group together and the idea is that, as a group, we can get a better outcome than we could individually. That improves the way we deliver our services and improves our bottom line.”
The priority now is responding to all of the brokers who have shown interest.
The founding member stated: “I want to have conversations with members and understand what’s important to them. Once the submissions and interest start to slow down, we’ll begin a more formal process of engaging with all of those members, and we’ll be embracing the cooperative principles from day one so that each member has a vote.
“We want members to participate in how the cooperative is going to be established and what services it’s going to provide. So at the moment [the priority is] just engaging with them, getting as much feedback from them as I can, and then we’ll begin the process of actually deciding on the services and some of the more structural elements of how the cooperative will operate.”
With the crucial first step (launching) now taken, Gow-Gates is optimistic about the cluster’s future.
“I’m a strong believer in getting a start and it’ll grow,” he declared. “I’m confident that there’s enough sentiment of support that this is a good idea and there is demand for it. I’m sure challenges will come, but we’re independent brokers – we deal with challenges every day. We’re competent and I know we can overcome those things.”
