Ardonagh's Towergate – Rebranding from consolidator to integrator

Towergate has shed its history as a consolidator and is now an integrator.

This is the message from the broker’s chief executive Joe Thelwell (pictured), who has been on a UK-wide rebranding mission over the last year to bring together the group’s 44 separately branded divisions under the central Towergate banner.

While a small number of complementary specialist brands will be retained, full integration was completed this month.

The journey has seen Thelwell already visit more than 50 of Towergate’s 65 offices this year, spreading the message to its 1,850 employees about how Towergate wants to be seen.

“Towergate’s history is as a consolidator, but we don’t see our future here,” Thelwell said. “A consolidator’s model is about leveraging insurers for greater commission, but our model is about client benefits and client outcomes.”

Thelwell said he had spoken to staff about the client-focused vision for the broker, and the benefits of being under one Towergate banner.

He added: “It’s been a gradual change over the course of a year, and it’s been a long journey, but it brings all our offices together, so everyone feels they are part of something.

“To insurers, it means they see this one strong identity, rather than lots of small names they may associate with independent brokers. This means, when we advertise the Towergate name, the benefit is felt across the group.”

Part of the integration has also included the two-year project to move its branches from 120 software systems to a single-core Acturis platform.

This is currently 83% complete, with just eight sites remaining for completion in the second half of the year, but Thelwell conceded it had been a difficult process.

He said: “It’s a complete cultural change for an office, but it brings us up to date with the 21st century and it’s been long overdue.

“There’s a lot of hard work involved, with rekeying and moving from paper to paperless. But, in the long term, it will be of huge value to our staff and help them to spend more time with clients.

“That’s the vision, to cut down on admin time for them and allow them to focus on talking to clients about how we can help them and meet their needs.”

Making up 41% of the Ardonagh Group, which Thelwell described as being a great “investment vehicle”. He said being part of the group allowed Towergate to offer additional products to clients.

He said client advice and offering clients new services would be key drivers of growth for the newly rebranded Towergate. The broker recently opened new offices in Swindon and Burnley – its first new offices not generated through an acquisition.

High street expansion

Thelwell said it was his ambition to continue opening more offices across the UK in this way and adding to its 600 account executives.

“There is nowhere in the UK our account executives wouldn’t visit,” he said. “But we want to continue growing next year with more quality hires and training up the next generation.

“Our staff completed 19,000 hours of technical training in the last 12 months and I really want us to become renowned as a great trainer of people.”

While clients will continue to deal with Towergate, internally the group has rebranded to staff as Towergate Advisory.

Thelwell said this was to ensure staff are aware of the broker’s focus on providing customers with face-to-face advice. He added: “It’s all about staff aspiration and about how they feel we position ourselves in the market.

“We don’t want to be just a consolidator, we want to be something that gives great advice to clients, making staff proud to work for us.”

Underinsurance

Around 80% of Towergate’s products are sold face-to-face or via a telephone call with an advisor.

Thelwell says this is key in the face of online sales of commercial policies, which he thinks is a major contributor to the problem of underinsurance.

According to recent research by the Building Cost Information Service, part of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors, 80% of commercial properties in England and Wales are insufficiently covered.

Towergate offers a valuation service and a business interruption calculator to ensure clients are buying the right level of insurance. And Thelwell says tackling underinsurance is one of his priorities.

“Online insurance being accessible to clients 24/7 is a good thing, but we need to ensure that customers are insured for everything they need to be insured for, not what they want to be insured for,” he says.

“And with a face-to-face service for commercial clients you can have a real deep dive into what they actually need and give them proper advice.

“Only with that can they make an informed decision on what they need.”