Slow and steady may well win the race but for Seventeen Group, strategic growth is not a race but a well-paced and carefully measured marathon. It’s a marathon that hit two major checkpoints earlier this month with the dual acquisition of Surrey-based Wisemans Insurance Services and Manchester-based North West Risk Solutions expanding the group’s regional presence and reach.
It has been an active period for the business which has welcomed five acquisitions to date this year, noted Seventeen Group CEO Paul Anscombe (pictured) when he shared the thought process behind the deals – and what’s next – in an interview with Insurance Business. He highlighted that the Wisemans’ deal was a straightforward transaction, resulting from his long-standing relationship with chairman Steve Burrows.
“We knew and trusted Steve and the team, and we’d received good information on Wisemans as a high-quality business,” he said. “So, it was a perfect deal for us. Also, from a location point of view, we hadn’t previously had a presence in the West London area so that has worked out really well for us. We have offices in Watford, northwest of London; in Chelmsford, to the east; and in Haywards Heath, to the south. So, having this office in Ashford in Surrey, to the west of London has filled a big gap.”
The swoop for North West took on a slightly different flavour, he said, emanating from MD Peter Stevenson and his team’s decision that it would make sense to integrate the AR into the Estate & Construction Division of James Hallam (Seventeen Group’s broking subsidiary) with Stevenson continuing with the company as a business developer. While it was a different M&A route, Anscombe highlighted that the same core values of trust and knowledge underpinned bot deals.
It's those factors which make for a successful M&A transaction, he said, because it means you’re not stepping into the dark, but embarking on a new growth trajectory with people you know, trust and enjoy working with. That’s the foundation of Seventeen’s acquisition criteria – and on that foundation, the group is able to find the right specialist businesses to complement its existing areas of expertise, which include hotel, marine, events or medical malpractice.
“If we can find a specialist business that complements an existing specialty, then that's a big plus for us,” he said. “But if it’s a broker that brings a new specialty into the group where we can add value that's also of interest. Outside of that, we’re always looking to grow our regional presence, especially where there’s value placed on the power of dealing with local brokers.”
Anscombe noted that for Seventeen Group, having boots on the ground in a community and operating as a voice for those communities is essential, and that he has seen the impact that brokers having a local presence has on clients. It’s a true differentiator, he said, particularly considering that with the rapid adoption of AI, and the move to remote working, it’s easy to fall out of touch with a community.
“We encourage all of our offices to have staff present and to meet with each other and their communities regularly,” he said. “We support local charities, rather than supporting just one national charity and we encourage, both financially and operationally, for our offices to get involved with local initiatives. It is a real differentiator for our clients to see the local presence of our teams.”
Having a great team who are invested in the success of their communities is a great value proposition, he said, as it’s the team that operates as the sales force of any broking business. For the group, that’s not just about attracting new clients or retaining existing clients, but also about building out a strong acquisition pipeline.
“We’ve got three acquisition opportunities at present which have come directly from colleague recommendations,” he said. “When our colleagues are talking to their broker friends, they’re talking about their personal experience of working with Seventeen Group, and you can’t hide from that. If someone’s not happy in their organisation, they're not going to try to convince a friend to come into the group.
“So, my job and the job of the directors at Seventeen Group is to keep our team happy and motivated because if we do that, we know we can retain clients, win new clients, and attract people into the group, whether that's through recruitment or acquisition. Your colleagues are your sales force in every sense.”
Exploring what’s next for the group, Anscombe highlighted that slowing down is not on the team’s agenda. As a stable, independent broker which has served the market for some 40 years now, Seventeen can see a significant range of opportunities at hand to continue delivering tangible value for its client base, insurer partners and internal team. Further acquisitions are certainly on the cards, he said, but also critical is the group’s investment in its own operations – whether around technology, new teams, or new lines of business including its burgeoning cyber offering.
“We’re also looking at further international expansion,” he said. “We’re doing this cautiously but we have a good footprint internationally at present, and we'd like to build upon that. More of our clients are becoming international and there’s more demand from overseas brokers looking to access the London market so we’ve been restructuring to take that opportunity.
“It’s not going to be a big splash but rather us slowly building our capability to place business for our European broker network members over the coming years.”
At the core of all the business’s growth plans is Anscombe and his team’s passion for the independent insurance broking ecosystem and their commitment to living out the values that keep the market viable. There are some great broking firms out there in the market right now, he said, and it’s right that they – alongside Seventeen – continue to promote insurance broking as a fantastic career full of opportunities.
“We’re very positive about the future within our business,” he said. “There are challenges, certainly, but there are more opportunities than challenges. And if you’ve got the right platform then you’ve got strong foundations and you’re set for the future. This is an era where there’s a real opportunity to build a professional firm with high degrees of specialism and to attract great talent into that business. So, we’re really excited about the future.”
