Radius Insurance Solutions has today revealed its acquisition of Leeds-based Milestone Insurance Consultants and Signature Underwriting, specialists in business motor insurance. The combined companies now manage a gross written premium of £50 million, operating out of several offices spanning the UK.
Milestone, which has served the Leeds market since 1979, is primarily a wheels-based broker specialising in taxis and couriers, and Signature is its underwriting brand. As a commercial broker with a focus on motor and fleet insurance, Radius Insurance sought out the acquisition in a bid to boost its courier and taxi offerings, and as an opportunity to take its first step into wholesale broking.
In a Press release, Radius Insurance noted that as the insurance division of the global business services company Radius Payment Solutions, it sees “great opportunities” for cross-selling insurance to its base of fuel card and telematics customers. Equally, it has been drawn to the underwriting capabilities of the deal, which it will utilise to create new solutions integrating insurance with telematics.
Radius Insurance will continue to face the market through its existing brands – now including Milestone and Signature as well as the Burley Group. The broking group has offices in Sheffield, Leeds, Glasgow and Essex, while its telematics division is a global operation that tracks over half a million vehicles and assets across five continents.
Commenting on the acquisition, Bill Holmes, CEO of the Radius Group, said: “Insurance is a really important long-term market for us and this acquisition gives us more scale and capability to add to the base we have been building organically over the last twelve months. Milestone has a strong overlap with the Radius customer base and our expansion into wholesale broking through the acquisition of Signature means Radius can write business on behalf of an underwriter, which will give us greater flexibility to integrate our telematics products with insurance.”
Meanwhile, Radius Insurance’s commercial director Matt Kirby said the group is “raring to go” and this opportunity will allow it to offer current Radius taxi and fleet customers a richer range of services. As a business services group, he said, Radius can now provide taxi and courier operators not only with insurance but also vehicle tracking and dashcams, vehicle leasing, fuel cards, telecoms and IT solutions and even electric vehicle charging.
“We’re looking forward to designing new types of cover that make use of our telematics capabilities to their full risk-reducing potential,” Kirby said. “These include cloud-based dashcams and driver monitoring that analyses driving style to reduce risky behaviours. We don’t just offer standard telematics but also anti-theft trackers, with a recovery service that works nationwide with the police and recovers 95% of stolen vehicles. We all hope the enriched services we can offer will help us achieve strong organic growth for Radius.”
