Insurance Age reports:

Established in 2008, Hazelton Mountford is aiming to hit £20m gross written premium in the next two years through organic growth, Gordon Hazelton, group managing director, told Insurance Age – says Rosie Simms.

He detailed the chartered independent broker grows about 10% per annum and currently sits at £17m GWP.

The softer market this year makes growth “a bit more of a challenge”, Hazelton, pictured, claimed.

However, £20m is not a sign to be complacent for Hazelton, as the business intends to keep growing once it hits that milestone, the MD remarked.

The firm is headquartered in Worcester and has an office in Evesham that deals with that area and the Cotswolds.

In January, it announced it had acquired the White Knight Group’s insurance book of business, adding a third location for the broker with a Lydney-based office. The deal marked the broker’s second acquisition in the last five years, following its move for Michael Rollett & Co in 2020.

Hazelton observed the broker is not a consolidator and uses an acquisition model for gaining talent.

“The acquisitions that we’ve done have been small books of business or account exec type acquisitions, and we’ve been very successful and very profitable doing that,” he commented.

Recruitment

The business currently has 30 staff, with four in Eversham, one in Lydney, and the rest in the Worcester office.

It has a strong focus on growing internal talent rather than hiring from outside, Hazelton said.

“We want to grow our own because we found the people that have started with us, stayed with us. They’re the best staff because they know how we work. They know our values, they know our culture.”

Hazelton noted that he sees apprentices as the future of the business and the industry, and added the broker currently has four.

Claims

The MD detailed Hazelton Mountford has its own in-house claims-handling team made up of three-and-a-half staff. Without them, customers would be on their own he said.

We want to grow our own because we found the people that have started with us, stayed with us

Gordon Hazelton, Hazelton Mountford

“Our claims team are there to act on our clients’ behalf to the insurers. They are constantly busy because they’re the ones battling with the poor insurer claims service, protecting the clients from it, helping the clients dealing with issues with claims all the time.”

The business decided to create the claims teams as the account execs and handlers were busy and claims required a specific team.

“That was why we went there for our own in-house team, whose job it is solely to deal with that, look after the clients and make sure they’re getting the top service and sheltering them in many respects from the insurers.”

App

The business also has a claims app for clients who want to report a claim directly to the broker in the app.

“It comes straight into the Acturis system and notifies our claims handlers that they’ve got a claim. So if the client at eight o’clock at night wants to just upload and submit their stuff, they can.

“A lot of clients, though, still prefer to deal with the person and still want that human touch. But it’s there for those that want to do that, particularly the larger fleets and people like that who have quite large volume.”

Clients

Among its areas of specialism, Hazelton Mountford, lists general commercial, property, haulage and transport, and not-for-profit insurance.

Hazelton listed its customers “tend to be businesses that are similar to us, which are regionally privately owned, probably SME to medium sized and sometimes quite large companies”.

Adding: “The clients like the fact that they can get access to people who actually own the business and make decisions and we’ve got a transition plan for when those of us that are getting older, then there will be the next generation that will come through.”

He concluded: “Our plan is to remain independent and continue to grow.”