The broker may have big plans as it branches out of its Manchester spiritual home, but its focus remains on clients and community

Name of broker: Bridge Insurance Brokers

Office locations and number of staff: Two offices, 100 staff

GWP controlled: Undisclosed

Major sectors: Property, construction, retail

Senior management: Chairman Roger Potts, directors Mike Backner, Gilbert Cohen, Peter Warburton, Phil Webster, Vaughan Rudd and Gavin Ruben

Although Bridge has recently broken a 40-year-old tradition by opening an office outside Manchester, chairman Roger Potts will always be proud of his firm’s links to the city.

“Manchester will always be our head office and spiritual base of Bridge,” Potts said. “We are a very important cog in the Manchester and northwest economy.”

Potts has high expectations for the new London office though. He expects it to be of equal size or bigger than the Manchester office within three years.

The London office will act as a gateway for international business coming into the UK, he said.

Looking to buy

And Bridge won’t stop there. Potts wants the broker to expand and open more offices in the UK.

“London is an obvious choice as a first move, because of the international book and business we already have in London, but we are actually thinking of where else we can take this once London gets on its feet,” he said.

Bridge would even look at acquisitions. Potts said Bridge would be most interested in buying a broker of around £7.5 GWP or above that shares Bridge’s values, places clients first and trades in similar areas.

Getting back to what matters

Potts, who was chairman of corporate risks at Willis before joining Bridge, said the culture change was a shock when he left the Willis leviathan.

“It is quite a dramatic shift from the bureaucracy of Willis to joining an organisation whose total focus is clients,” he said. “The Bridge reputation is always about client comes first. If you cut the business in half, that’s what we’re about.”

Potts said that Bridge stays ahead in the competitive Manchester market through stability, good service, delivering profitable business to its insurer panel and generating lots of new business.

He believes regional brokers should do more to support their communities than just employ staff.

“We have a strong social conscience of charity support in the city, and we have a project to engage our staff in charity projects,” he said.

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