Dan Saulter: Growth remains on the agenda as Davies sets out 2030 targets

A new year often signals new beginnings – and this is very much the case for professional services and technology business Davies Group.

In January 2025, the company launched its Vision 2030 strategy. This details the road map for “where the business wants to be in five years’ time” based on four strategic focus areas and an overarching ambition to increase global revenues to between $2.5bn (£3.15bn) and $3bn (£3.78bn) by the end of the plan’s five-year term.

Speaking exclusively to Insurance Times about Vision 2030, Davies Group’s chief executive, Dan Saulter, says: “We have undergone a period of significant growth and diversification and we are looking to create a vision for the next five years – with the expectation there will be twists and turns.

“We are midway through the 2020s and it provides us with an opportunity to look at where the business wants to be in five years’ time.”

Vision 2030 hinges on four key pillars.

The first of these pillars is “operational excellence” and, in particular, how Davies Group “can transform our back and middle office” while still delivering for clients and stakeholders.

The second pillar “is to push harder around organic growth and look at how we can get better at cross-selling the services we offer”.

Saulter continues: “If we can improve our ability to cross-sell, it will drive growth. We want to become more critical to the success of our clients over time.”

While organic growth is a high priority, Saulter adds that Davies Group would still look at M&A should the right opportunity arise.

“There has not been a year in the past decade in which we have not transacted any mergers or acquisitions,” he confirms. “While organic growth is important to us, we will look at M&A – but we are choosy.

“We are always looking at ways in which we can broaden or enhance the services and solutions we offer. They need to be complimentary to our strategic objectives and the culture must be right.”

The third arm of Vision 2030 is centred around greater investment into technology and artificial intelligence (AI), to “help our clients move ahead of their peer group”.

The fourth and final pillar, meanwhile, is a continuation of business as usual, Saulter notes, with Davies Group hoping to maintain its ongoing “geographic and service expansion”.

“We want to look at how we can add small but highly complementary services and solutions to those we already provide,” he explains.

Having flexibility

Although Vision 2030 is a clearly laid out plan, Saulter emphasises that Davies Group is prepared to bend and flex in order to adapt to dynamic market conditions, such as the more prominent soft market impacting more lines of business since the beginning of the year.

He says: “We always have to ensure we are on the front foot and be prepared to change direction, if need be, to ensure we stay relevant to our clients.

“We have seen a resurgence in Lloyd’s since the Covid pandemic and we have been helping clients in many areas. We have our specialist Lloyd’s operation, [third party management agent] Asta, [which] enables us to offer services to those [that] operate in Lloyd’s on a global basis. As a group, we serve the whole global insurance ecosystem.

“The services we provide will face tail and headwinds [at] periods, but the breadth of what we offer will see products, services and solutions constantly in different states of their cycles.”

One such headwind is a necessary one that impacts the entire insurance sector – regulation.

Saulter continues: “We have a broad set of services and our clients vary from large multinational insurance companies to smaller MGAs and brokers.

“Companies of whatever size are faced with a growing complexity of their regulatory burdens and are looking for experienced and efficient support.

“They want partners [that] can remove that burden and allow them to concentrate on their core roles, which are marketing their business, winning business and delivering for their clients.”

London-centric

Davies Group began life in 1968 in the UK – Saulter says that the country would remain at the heart of the group.

He adds: “We are pleased to be headquartered in the UK. We have a great deal of history in London and that will only continue.

“We see the UK as being at the forefront of insurance innovation. That goes for the MGA sector, broking, underwriting and the legacy market, which we have seen significant innovations in [across] recent years.”

Davies Group operates across 29 sites in the UK and Ireland, although it has comprehensive coverage of North America too.

Saulter says global revenue for the group in 2025 is predicted to be in the region of £1bn.

“In broad terms, half our revenue comes from North America, in terms of the USA and Canada, [while] 40% comes from the UK and Ireland. The rest of the world [contributes] the remaining 5% to 10%,” he explains.