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Insurance Age: GS Group wants to double GWP to £40m as part of five year plan

Managing Director, George Stubbs, was recently interviewed by Insurance Age to discuss recent new hires and future growth plans for the company:

The broker, which currently has £20m GWP, also revealed it has taken on staff from Arthur J Gallagher, Marsh and Lockton.

GS Group has recruited two ex-Arthur J Gallagher staff in a bid to capture some of the corporate market and double its gross written premium (GWP) to £40m, it has been revealed.

Speaking to Insurance Age, managing director and chairman of GS Group, George Stubbs verified the names and locations of where the new recruits would be based.

New hires
“In Dundee we recruited a guy called Garry Hay from Gallagher’s and Ian Donald from Gallagher’s,” Stubbs stated.

Another two hires – Chris Darby, formerly at Marsh and Nichola Martin, previously at Lockton Insurance Brokers – were also added to the company’s Glasgow branch.

Furthermore, the firm has exceeded its target of hitting £20m in premium income and to employ more than 50 staff, said Stubbs, noting that a new plan had now been set.

Growth plans
“I made a decision last year that we had to implement a five year plan and bring in new change to help us double the business,” he continued.

“We are aiming for £40m [gross written premium] in five years’ time.”

GWP for the firm currently stands at £20m.

Corporate market
“We’re trying to move more into the corporate market [after] we won some large accounts recently,” explained Stubbs.

“And a lot more of what we are concentrating on is having the right people on board that can now capture more corporate business.

“There are a few specialisms that we are looking at which are around the haulage sector that aligns with our claims proposition which we’ve got.”

He also highlighted that there were a few other niches the firm was looking to go into like the construction sector, but was unable to elaborate as the business venture was “too new”.

Opening doors
Stubbs continued: “I don’t want to give away too much detail but it opens up a lot of doors for us… and we are still on the lookout for an MD.

“We are the third biggest in Scotland now and I would imagine that would probably change in the next year and we would move up to number two.”

Commenting on Brexit after the triggering of Article 50 on Wednesday (29 March), Stubbs said that, despite “all the uncertainty things would settle down,” adding that he couldn’t see any change to regulation that would impact the firm.

Yet, on the Scottish National Party’s plan to push through a second independence Scottish referendum, the GS Group boss concluded: “I don’t believe she will get that until after Brexit. It makes no logical sense for me to go for another referendum at this stage.

“The people of Scotland has spoken, this is not the right time.”

To view the article on Insurance Age, click here.

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