Groupama-controlled broker in bid to grow wholesale arm by 50%
Commercial broker Bollington, in Groupama has a controlling stake, has embarked on an ambitious program to grow its wholesale arm by 50% next year.
From 1 January 2009 wholesale and scheme specialist FM Green, which Bollington acquired in 2006, will be renamed Bollington Wholesale. The rebrand will emphasise the affiliation with, and access to new parent company Bollington’s innovative products, schemes and access to a range of markets.
Further changes will be made to Compucar, which was acquired in January 2008 and enabled Bollington to wholesale to brokers online. Until now this brand, as the name suggests, has been primarily motor based. However, from the start of 2009, the facility will also provide wholesale access to non-motor Bollington products. The brand will expand to form sub divisions with the ‘Compu’ prefix eg Compucare, under the general heading of Compuquote.
To support its wholesale growth ambitions, Bollington has recruited additional staff, including Stephen Bottoms who has joined as business development manager with responsibility for account growth across the Bollington Wholesale and Compuquote brands. Bottoms has 20 years industry experience and joins from Aon where he was responsible for UK wholesale development.
The changes will be overseen and led by Chris Patterson who was appointed in September by Bollington as managing director of its wholesale operations.
Patterson, who was previously senior new business development manager, Aviva Financial Services said: “This new phase for Bollington Wholesale will extend brokers’ reach to a far wider range of markets with the convenience of access online through the Compuquote facility.
“The two-pronged approach of simplifying access for brokers to a wider range of niche wholesale products, while at the same time adding new ones, will we expect help the account to grow by 50% in 2009.”
