From the Ogden rate cut to yet another Insurance Premium Tax (IPT) rise, so far 2017 has been a challenging one for the insurance industry.
But one firm hasn’t let that get in the way of growth: Manchester-based Principal Insurance has enjoyed a “bumper year,” despite the pressures, says its founder and MD.
“A lot of our policies are in motorcycle, so the Ogden erodings, if you like, have been quite high compared to other lines of business. But it’s an industry challenge, so therefore if everybody looks at it and embraces it then there should just be parity along the way. It’s just about communicating and making sure you’re still doing the best for your customer with what you’ve got in front of you,” Dave Bowcock told Insurance Business.
As for the new rate proposal revealed by the Government this week, which would see the rate move to between 0% and 1%, Bowcock said that the business welcomes the move initially.
“It still needs to run its course so we understand it a bit more, but it’s a lot of change around in a short period of time. So again, you’ve got to look at parity and make sure everybody’s looking at that properly and you’re being sensible about what changes you make. I think we are OK with it at the minute, and will just keep an eye on where everything’s at,” he commented.
The biggest challenge for Principal Insurance this year has been communication in the face of both change and growth, the MD said.
“It’s about communicating to customers these changes that they might not necessarily understand, communicating with your key partners and making sure that you’re working together – because you’ve still got targets to hit, and things like Ogden and IPT put a potential strain on that,” Bowcock explained.
“The fact that we’re growing and have three different offices and over 100 people working for us now, you’ve also got different internal communication challenges,” he added.
The firm, which sees its financial year end in October, has had a “bumper year when it comes to numbers and growth,” and is expecting a significant increase in turnover for the period.
“We’re currently busy setting our budgets for next year, but more importantly looking at the medium term, as in the next three years, and what our growth strategy is,” Bowcock said.
“We’ve enjoyed great growth and we will still carry on looking at new business. We want to concentrate internally on our customer journey and making sure that’s as good as it can be, and concentrate on renewing as many people as we can.
“While all those challenges are out there in the market, and we’ve had the challenges of growth in getting extra office space, relocating and recruiting lots of different people, we’ll look back and still smile,” he concluded.
Related stories:
Ogden rate change has had a “significant impact” on the reinsurance industry
.jpg)
