Clegg Gifford to open branch in Tunbridge Wells as network buildout continues

The broker will be opening a new branch in Tunbridge Wells with a soft launch during June and the official launch in October.  

The Tunbridge Wells branch will have three members of staff. Clegg Gifford is currently going through the recruitment process and has offers pending; the branch opening date depends on their start dates.

Toby Clegg, pictured, managing director, said: “We’d like to have a soft opening approach that we can undertake the training, systems and other things so that while they haven’t had the grand opening they’re going through the teething problems element.”

The opening of the Tunbridge Wells office takes the total number of branches for the business up to 21.

Earlier this month, Clegg Gifford opened its relocated Bristol branch with five staff, taking the headcount in the business to around 270, it said.

The branches will sell all of Gifford’s products and are very much focused on commercial insurance. Clegg said the firm was not aiming at personal lines unless it is associated business.

Opportunities

Wales is an area where Clegg Gifford is low on representation. Clegg explained that the business did have a Cardiff Westminster AR years ago who retired and an “adequate replacement” could not be found.

“Similarly, the very corner of the south-west in Cornwall, that’s another area where we’re underrepresented. The other one, with the exception of Brighton, is part of the south-east, but obviously we’re rectifying that with Kent.”

Clegg previously targeted 30 branches by the end of 2023 and said he now felt comfortable with the number of branches the business has.

He said: “We can probably subsume a few more branches over the next couple of years. So we might actually hit the 30, but I’d say perhaps that is probably the limit now.”

Operations director Kelly Lane said: “It’s more about making sure that any commercial customer has the opportunity to buy their insurance from Clegg Gifford wherever they are in the UK. So it’s not about the numbers. It’s about coverage and how we can service those customers in the right way, that’s what really matters.”

GWP

The business is aiming to get to the £5m GWP level for each branch, Clegg continued, adding: “Ultimately with a view of trying to produce about a £1m profit per branch eventually. Some of them are on their way to doing it and it’s obviously a medium-term strategy investment. So we’ve got to be a bit patient but, risk by risk, we’re getting there.”

Lane highlighted that Clegg Gifford was supporting the branches to reach those goals with its technical teams.

“We've also spread out our apprenticeship schemes into the branches to ensure that, if a branch wants to, and feels it can accommodate it, that their apprentices [are] coming in,” she said.

“We also support with marketing that we work with Markerstudy Group and also our own marketing team to run individual marketing campaigns of products.”

Markerstudy acquired Clegg Gifford in 2021.

Clegg added the broker was keeping wholesale out of the branch network as it would “create too much conflict of interest”.

“We think it has to be purely segregated and we’ve always taken that view on that particular risk. Never say never, but that’s definitely not in the medium-term plan at all.”

Growth

The business has grown from £90m gross written premiums in 2021 to £142m GWP in 2023. Clegg highlighted that all of the expansion was organic.

Income at the business further grew to £24m last year, up from £18m in 2022.

“There was no M&A activity or any purchases of any books; that was entirely organic growth,” Clegg explained. “It speaks to the strength of our proposition and, obviously, some of the growth coming from those new branches, but also from a reinvigoration of some of our heritage areas, like the Lloyd’s department, where we’re really doing incredibly well.”

Lloyd’s

One of the broker’s taglines is “putting the Lloyd’s capacity back into the high street”.

Clegg said: “It does appeal to people because of course they have heard of Lloyd’s, and it’s amazing how long its history has lingered.

“Certainly it seems that the quality prospects and with the flexibility of the products we’re able to offer under the delegated authority remit – that’s ultimately what they’re really interested in.”

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