Everything you need to know about Crombie Lockwood
Stats
History
Crombie Lockwood has been active in the New Zealand market for over 40 years, with its first office having been set up in Napier in 1978 by Colin Crombie and Peter Stephens. Steve Lockwood joined in 1983 and opened the second office in Palmerston North, with the New Plymouth, Wellington and Christchurch offices opening soon afterwards.
The firm now has over 25 offices across the country from Invercargill to Kaitaia, with a team of approximately 900 people and over 100,000 clients.
Crombie Lockwood was acquired by insurance, risk management and consulting firm Gallagher in 2014. Gallagher is the world’s fourth largest insurance broker and began as a family-run company in 1927, and completed almost 300 domestic and international acquisitions between 2010 and 2016. It has been named as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute for seven consecutive years from 2012 to 2018.
“Although we now have international backing, we still remain true to our Kiwi heritage,” Crombie Lockwood states.
“Our clients receive quality service and insurance advice with full international endorsement. The combination of our heritage and Gallagher ownership has resulted in our advantages: locally focused, nationally resourced and internationally endorsed. It is this combination of local commitment powered by national resources and global support that gives Crombie Lockwood the edge.
“We’ve been helping New Zealanders protect what’s important to them for over 40 years. Their businesses and homes, their incomes, their assets, their families, their futures and their own success stories. By listening, by understanding and by doing things differently, we’ve become the benchmark for trusted insurance advice.”
Areas of service
Crombie Lockwood’s network of brokers covers almost every type of insurance product, and its offering is split into four main areas: business, corporate, industries and personal lines.
Business insurance
Its business offering includes specialised policies for SMEs, along with corporate insurance and packages designed for farms and agribusiness. These typically involve cover for risks including key person life and health, cyberattacks and natural disasters, among others.
The Crombie Lockwood-Vero insurance package is a cover facility designed specifically for rural businesses and aims to combat underinsurance within the sector, as well as offering flexible cover tailored to each specific business and managing insurance overheads.
Corporate insurance
The corporate insurance suite is designed for “large, complex organisations” with a higher and more multi-faceted level of risk exposure. Crombie Lockwood has a specialist team of brokers which develops policies and risk management programmes for corporates, which takes into account financial, asset and people and workplace risks.
“We look at ways for you to mitigate risk through smart risk management,” the group states. “With access to a range of benchmarking and gap analysis tools we structure a best-fit risk management programme and access the right markets with the best available cover for your business.”
Industries
Crombie Lockwood has teams with experience across various industry sectors, which analyses and designs insurance products specific to the risk landscape of businesses across a range of industries.
The group offers industry-specific products within the agriculture, entertainment, forestry and technology sectors, among many others.
Personal lines
Crombie’s personal lines offering includes home, car, health and travel insurance, along with more specialised products for landlords, boat owners and motorbike owners.
Leadership team
The company was started as Crombie Stephens Associates in Napier by Colin Crombie.
The current CEO, as of January 2019, is Carl O’Shea, who joined in 1988 and opened the company’s Wellington office. Steve Lockwood acts as the Managing Director of Gallagher Australia and New Zealand.
Other key names, as of January 2019, include:
Gillian Granger - Chief Operating Officer
Brors van der Kroft - Chief Financial Officer
Greg Howarth - Chief Information Officer
Conservation activity
Crombie Lockwood has been involved with a number of conservation activities focusing on New Zealand’s wildlife and native plants. In December, the firm’s Dunedin branch spent time restoring native plants to the 315-hectare Sinclair Wetlands, a portion of the Lakes Waihola-Waipori wetland complex.
The company also supports the Kakapo Survival Programme, which works with scientists, rangers and volunteers to help preserve the critically endangered kakapo, and has spent time at the Pukaha Mt Bruce Wildlife Centre helping refurbish its Kaka and Kiwi enclosures.
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