When most people picture Wales, they imagine hills and mountains, agriculture and livestock, slightly hard to pronounce words and maybe supping on a delicious bit of Welsh rarebit. What they don’t often think of is insurance.
However, local Evan Rowlands (pictured left) is changing that. Managing director of Insurance Centre Wales, he started out in the insurance industry in the mid-2000s.
“I started with a broker back in 2004, and I worked for two brokerages basically up until 2009 then I joined the NFU mutual,” he explained.
“When I worked for NFU Mutual in 2009 I worked for them as a local agent, so it meant that I would travel to every corner of the UK basically covering different agencies under different circumstances.
“That was kind of the biggest learning phase in my career. I was handling a lot of agricultural insurance along the way. And then I returned home to Aberystwyth, my home town, in 2015, and that’s when I decided to set up on my own brokerage.”
For Rowlands, his brokerage is unique to many in one way that stands out: they predominantly speak to their clients in Welsh, and make a point of doing so.
“Welsh is my first language and 80% of our customer base will be Welsh speaking,” Rowlands said. “So, when we interact with them, when we discuss their policies, when we discuss their needs, we will do that through the Welsh language.”
This is something the MD says he believes gives his clients extra trust in his brokerage.
“It’s something that I am very proud of and something I am proud to be able to offer to our customers,” Rowlands explained.
“And no doubt I believe it gives them reassurance and it gives them confidence to be able to discuss sometimes quite sensitive matters in their first language. It’s something that has helped us no doubt to gain and retain customers.”
The business mainly focuses on agricultural clients, and Rowlands believes that he knows the key to gaining the trust of those clients.
“You need an understanding of the agricultural industry. It’s a very specific industry and it can change from area to area if you like, because different regions have different types of farming,” he explained.
“I’m a farmer’s son, born and bred, and I feel comfortable and confident dealing with the agricultural industry and advising them on their insurance needs. It gives you the credibility as well, the farmers come to trust you.”
It was this goal, of focusing on the livestock and agricultural industries, that led Insurance Centre Wales to become part of H&H Insurance Broker’s (HHIB) appointed representative group.
Launched last September, the AR network provides insurance professionals access to HHIB’s portfolio while taking care of Financial Conduct Authority regulation.
For Rowlands, partnering with HHIB was a real win for his business, and something that would benefit his clients immensely.
“They’ve got a great standing within the agricultural community as a group,” Rowlands said. “H&H have got a very successful auction mart, where they sell livestock to farmers from across the UK.
“Even though we are 300 miles away, people will travel from our area up to Carlisle to purchase livestock because of the integrity of their firm and the quality they attract. To become part of their network, part of their business was a real attraction.”
Looking forward, Rowlands says there is some worries from his clients around Brexit, but also from normal internal insurance concerns.
“Brexit is obviously a big concern for farmers because there’s talks of tariffs on exports of livestock,” he said.
“There’s also machinery theft, that’s quite a hot topic as well. Brexit would be the external threat, the machinery and livestock theft, which is getting more and more prominent, would become more of an internal threat to them.”
