New structure will improve Towergate's financials – exec chairman

Towergate’s new structure will help the business perform better operationally and financially, its new executive chairman has said.

The restructure, announced today as group chief executive Mark Hodges departed, will establish steering committees for each of Towergate’s four main business units – broking, underwriting, Paymentshield and direct.  

The chief executive of business will report into the steering committee and meet with each other once a month.

Executive chairman Alastair Lyons said each steering committee would behave as an operating company, with a divisional chief executive reporting into a board of executive and non-executive members about the design and delivery of their business plan.

He added: “There are some very big change programmes going on within Towergate as we modernise the business. That really requires a hell of a lot of focus by each part of the business.”

Lyons said the structure would give each business a clearer focus than the previous centralised management structure.

“The structure is there to perform better operationally. If the businesses perform better operationally there will be better financial results,” he said.

Towergate’s operating profit fell 7% to £144.9m last year. In the first half of 2014 it reported a 12% decline in operating profit to £68.3m, down on the £77.5m it had made in the same period last year.