Expanding into the land of the long white cloud had always been part of the plan for Sydney-based Market Lane Insurance Group, according to group managing director David Porteous (pictured), who recently sat down with Insurance Business to talk about the Lloyd’s coverholder’s first international expansion.
A group of specialist insurance businesses, Market Lane is the name behind The Barn Underwriting Agency, Fairlight Medical Practices Insurance, G.O.A.T. Insurance, MLX Risk Partners, and now, Market Lane Insurance Group New Zealand.
Porteous shared it was about nine months ago when the group started making formal arrangements to enter the Kiwi market, including obtaining a New Zealand financial services license for the new subsidiary and it becoming a member of the New Zealand Underwriting Agencies Council.
“It’s been nine months… but I’ve been thinking about it for a long time – probably since we started Market Lane or The Barn in Australia, and that was back in 2018/19,” Porteous told Insurance Business. “So, I always wanted to do it, and it’s nice to finally be there.”
Part of Market Lane’s prep work was to find out whether there was a need for the business in New Zealand – an undertaking that Porteous’ camp carried out by meeting with brokers all over the country.
“The universal response was, ‘Absolutely – if you can do it, make it happen now’,” Porteous said, adding that talking with core broking partners was critical to the move.
Lifting the lid further, the group managing director explained: “I think it’s very easy for Australians to trade in New Zealand, and New Zealand entities to trade in Australia. So, it’s a friendly environment in which to go and, obviously, proximity works.
“Also, the food & beverage industry, agribusiness, what we call ‘paddock to plate’ – a lot of what we do in there, the New Zealand economy is built on that… That naturally lends itself well to what we do at The Barn. So, all of those boxes ticked; we thought, ‘Great, let’s make it happen’.”
Of Market Lane’s brands, The Barn is the one that specializes in property and general liability exposures within the agribusiness, food & beverage, higher hazard manufacturing, complex commercial property owners, and boutique accommodation industries.
Currently, Market Lane NZ is trading as The Barn Underwriting Agency – New Zealand.
Illustrating where the underwriting group provides value, Porteous used the business chain surrounding milk as an example.
“If you think about a dairy, where there are the cows and the milk, the milk is extracted, and the milk is stored, and the milk is then transported, and the milk is then turned into cheese and yogurt or just milk, and that is then sent on to cafés and restaurants and supermarkets,” he said.
“There are some specific risk issues with a lot of those businesses. They present a number of risk challenges because of what they are and sometimes where they are.
“That’s the approach that we bring to the market – a risk appetite and an underwriting approach to those risks where we’re comfortable with them and we’d like to work with brokers and clients around those risks, and then provide an insurance solution to enable those clients to get on with making milk.”
The new subsidiary in Christchurch is led by NZ country head Kelsey Craver and senior underwriter Sarah Skelton. In time, they will be joined by an Auckland-based colleague as the Kiwi unit grows.
“We currently have a job advertised up in Auckland,” Porteous told Insurance Business. “We chose Christchurch because that’s where Kelsey and Sarah reside. We’re looking to expand into the North Island as soon as we can. We’re 35 here in our head office in Sydney. We’re just about to open an office in Melbourne, and we have the Christchurch office now.
“I think it’s about finding the right people who want to come with us on a journey. We’re a small underwriting agency; we’re not a huge insurance company, and we don’t want to be; we want to be a boutique specialist. That means finding the right people, and they can be hard to find. If the right people want to come with us and help us build this business, then absolutely we’re looking to grow, but we won’t just grow for growth’s sake.”
As for the company’s brands, the plan is to bring MLX across the Tasman next, to be followed by G.O.A.T. Insurance and Fairlight.
“We’re looking to bring those to New Zealand when the time is right,” Porteous said. “We’re also looking to bring on a new product here in Australia. If that works in New Zealand as well, absolutely we’re open to taking that product to the NZ market. So, Market Lane is the umbrella; it is the vehicle for these trading divisions to get going in the market. The first one is The Barn, and others will come.
“We already have in place a number of broker-agency agreements. Those brokers are generally firms that we’re trading with here in Australia, and we’ve extended that relationship to New Zealand. That enabled us to get up and running quite quickly… Now we can get our product and our capacity into the market and start helping our mutual clients get on with doing what they do best.”
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