Brown and Brown’s M&A strategy is ‘alive and kicking’ despite integration focus for 2025

Intermediary organisation Brown and Brown Europe plans to complete “a smaller number of larger” M&A deals in 2025, in keeping with the integration focus of its One Retail strategy, according to Carolyn Callan, the broker’s UK retail chief executive.

Callan initially started plotting the three-year One Retail strategy just prior to her appointment at Brown and Brown in October 2023 as retail managing director. The strategy formally launched in April 2024 to the firm’s managing directors, with associated activity further ramping up following Callan’s promotion to UK retail boss in May last year.

An important component of One Retail is an ongoing rebrand project, where around 100 acquired regional brokers are replacing their independent brand names with the Brown and Brown moniker.

Callan told Insurance Times that at its heart, One Retail was very much an integration focused strategy that is centred on fully embedding Brown and Brown’s acquired companies to better promote “being one business and being able to show our full shop window to a customer”.

One Retail became necessary after Brown and Brown’s highly acquisitive stance of recent years. Since 2022, when it added Global Risk Partners to its stable, the American broker has made 14 acquisitions, according to November 2024 data from Tracxn.

In terms of how the One Retail approach will impact Brown and Brown’s acquisition pipeline, Callan said: “You’ll probably start to see us do fewer smaller deals and [instead] start to focus on a smaller number of larger deals because they are easier to integrate.”

She continued: “The acquisition strategy is very much alive and kicking. We’ve got a really healthy pipeline and if the right opportunities come along, then we will acquire. We’ve always got the war chest there if the right business comes along – that’s really, really key.”

Acquisition targets

Although Callan would not confirm the number or type of acquisitions in Brown and Brown Europe’s current pipeline, she did note that there are “geographical areas that we’ve got little coverage in”, which would be ideal to further expand into.

She added that the broker would be looking to build on its specialist buys too – such as its October 2023 purchase of Kentro Capital, which includes trade credit broker Xenia, as well as its acquisition of health insurance and employee benefits specialist Drewberry in December 2024.

As well as “continuing to strengthen the specialisms” in Brown and Brown Europe’s portfolio, Callan confirmed that the intermediary would review new niches as opportunities arose and look to complete more deals in Europe too following its November 2024 purchase of Netherlands-based Qunites.

Brown and Brown Europe’s underwriting arm is also “very much looking at opportunities at the moment” in terms of acquisitions, “particularly [in the] SME space because that would help bolster our proposition on the retail broking side of things”, Callan added.

“I wouldn’t limit us to anything,” Callan continued. “There’s no real kind of criteria, apart from the culture piece.”

Callan described Brown and Brown Europe’s culture component within its M&A strategy as considering whether both parties would want to go for a meal or a drink with each other socially. If this chemistry does not fit, then Callan said the broker does not even explore the numbers.

“The acquisition strategy in terms of [putting] teammates [and] culture first is very much alive and kicking,” she confirmed.

“We’re very, very strict on who we buy, how they fit, very selective.”

US support

As an offshoot of Florida-based independent broker Brown and Brown, Callan explained that stateside support for Brown and Brown Europe’s acquisition strategy is incredibly evident in the UK M&A process.

She added: “Brown and Brown has very much bought into Europe and the UK.

“If we’re doing a sizeable acquisition, [senior leadership from America] are very much part of that process. They’re very big on meeting the key stakeholders in [the target] business, making sure they fit with our philosophy.

“They spend a lot of time doing that and getting to know the team before any kind of numbers are discussed.

“They invest a lot of time in that M&A process and it pays dividends as a result. They are very supportive, both from financial perspective in terms of the funding side of things, but equally in terms of helping us get the right deals over the line.”