SALT capitalises on market demand

It seems a specialist marine underwriter is making the most of an apparent gap in the market, having opened two new offices in as many months.

SALT Marine Risks confirmed late last week that it had expanded its footprint yet again, launching a new location in Melbourne.

Former Chubb veteran Richard Grant has been brought in to head the new location, joining the SALT team as marine manager of cargo.

“As an experienced and highly regarded marine underwriter, Richard will be able to significantly expand SALT’s involvement and service capability in the cargo space,” said Andrew Black, SALT’s head of marine for Australia.

The expansion comes just weeks after SALT opened a Perth office in late January, headed by marine manager and former Trident underwriter, Marie Nugent.

Speaking to Insurance Business, Black said the firm had been quick to open another location as the Perth office had been so well received by brokers.

“It’s certainly coming off the back of the opening of the office in Perth and now it’s indicative of the increasing and growing support that we’re receiving from the broking community,” he said.

As a specialist in the marine space, Black said SALT is meeting the needs of brokers who are struggling to find support elsewhere.

“There seems to be a shortage of experienced underwriters willing to assist brokers on some of the more complex marine risks – and that’s not to say we only write those type of risks – but there’s certainly a void or a gap there,” said Black.

“Our product offering seems to resonate so brokers are coming to us – it just means we’ve got to resource it more,” he added.

While Black declined to comment on whether SALT would be moving into any other locations soon, he did say further growth was highly likely for the firm. He also said that, while expansion is a probability, SALT’s main goals are to continue offering a valuable and reliable service to brokers.

“It’s about having representation and engaging solid, experienced, respected underwriters,” he told Insurance Business. “We purely operate in the broker market so we’re there to do what we can to respond professionally and quickly and provide them with a good underwriting and claims service.”