Mid-market focus helps Liberty Mutual to double-digit growth

A focus on the UK mid-market helped insurer Liberty Mutual to grow its regional commercial book by 33% last year.

Its regional branches in London, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Leeds, Glasgow and Dublin helped it boost gross written premium (GWP) to £109.8m in 2012 (2011: £82.3m).

Liberty’s regional offices are designed to handle mid-market business with turnover up to £500m, with underwriters working out of each branch.

It aims to write a minimum premium of £20,000 and its distribution strategy is focused on dealing with 185 brokers.

“Our brokers deal with underwriters who understand the needs and complexities of their clients. We have the skills to build a bespoke product tailored to our customer requirements,” general manager for the regions Neil Findley told Insurance Times.

Liberty also gives brokers online access to its claims tracking system.

“Our brokers are energised by the Liberty proposition, which integrates our underwriters, claims teams, risk engineers and business development staff. We work closely with our partners to assist their growth strategies. They are growing, and so are we,” Findley said.

GWP from its London market operations grew 10.7% to £261.3m GWP.

Building profile

Liberty Mutual announced a deal to sponsor cricket test match grounds in May in a bid to raise the brand’s profile in the UK.

“We knew it would take time to build our profile with our broker partners so that their client-facing personnel became more aware of the Liberty proposition. Before this, we may have been held back by a lack of brand awareness,” Findley said.  

It has entertained 330 brokers at cricket matches since May, including a dinner at Lord’s with ex-England captain Andrew Strauss.

Last month Liberty merged its Lloyd’s syndicate, its UK-based European operations and US reinsurance business into a single unit called Liberty Specialty Markets.