Royal & SunAlliance (R&SA) has announced plans to use its direct brand, More Th>n, to sell small business insurance.
More Th>n Business will target businesses with turnover of less than £1m.
Around 10,000 existing direct business customers, who bought insurance from R&SA's previous direct business offering, Business Insurance Direct, will be transferred to More Th>n Business.
R&SA director of small business and e-business Simon Cooter said More Th>n Business would sell products such as offices, vans, business car, shops, contractors, clubs and properties insurance to businesses by telephone.
Cooter said brokers had nothing to fear from the direct proposition, which in current customer numbers represented less than 5% of R&SA's total SME book.
He said that businesses with turnover of more than £1m who approach More Th>n Business for insurance would be referred to one of R&SA's brokers.
In the event that a broker's customer can get a better price from More Th>n Business, Cooter said R&SA would offer the same rate through the broker.
"We aim for the pricing to be consistent across the channels," Cooter said.
He said that the company's Enterprise and Enterprise Plus small business propositions would remain broker-only.
