Allianz strives to build ‘personalised relationships with every broker in the UK’ – Colm Holmes

Despite the “continuation of consolidation” in the UK broker market, Allianz UK is undertaking “a big push” in 2025 to build “one on one, personalised relationships with every broker” across the country, according to Colm Holmes, the insurer’s chief executive.

Speaking exclusively to Insurance Times following the publication of Allianz UK’s 2024 full-year financial results on 28 February 2025, Holmes confirmed that although the UK general insurance “industry is certainly consolidating”, there are “still around 2,000 brokers” operating across the country.

In the past, Allianz UK would have primarily focused on linking up with larger brokers, however Holmes believes that technology advancements have really opened the doors to insurer-broker collaboration, enabling Allianz UK to instigate and grow relationships with smaller businesses.

For him, this dynamic presents an opportunity for Allianz UK to more firmly “invest in distribution” amid the insurer’s ambitions to widen its geographic footprint.

He explained: “We will continuously look at rolling out new products, new packages to our brokers. We’re obviously trying to widen our footprint, so we’ll continue to invest in distribution – not only maintaining existing relationships, but creating new relationships.

“The industry is certainly consolidating, but there’s still around 2,000 brokers at least operating in the UK. And for me, there’s now ways of engaging with all those brokers.

“Previously, you intended to focus on the larger ones, but I think the opportunity with the advancements in technology allows us to build one on one, personalised relationships with every broker in the UK. That will continue to be a big push for us.”

‘Strong relationships’

According to January 2025 figures published by professional services firm Ernst and Young (EY), the number of UK insurance M&A deals rose from 112 in 2023 to 188 in 2024, with the total publicly disclosed deal value increasing from £3.7bn to £4.6bn between 2023 and 2024.

Despite this recorded uptick, Holmes remained unconcerned about the possible impact of market-wide consolidation on Allianz UK’s existing relationships within the broker sector.

He said: “I think there will be a continuation of consolidation. It’s certainly slowed down and that was to be expected, but I think you’ll continue to see some level of consolidation.

“From our perspective, you tend to have strong relationships with most of the businesses that are consolidating [anyway]. If the relationships are strong, the consolidation can sometimes just make it easier. You’ve got a larger volume of business which you’re trading with broker partners.

“There’s less of the [mid-market] in terms of brokers and I expect you’ll continue to see some level of consolidation. But from our perspective, we generally are supportive of our broker partners.”