Integration and digitalisation key to growth at Aston Lark - Peter Blanc

Aston Lark plans to bring all acquisitions under its single brand.

The group’s chief executive Peter Blanc said the model added greater strength and depth to the group, as opposed to retaining individual brands, and allowed experts in different areas of the group to more easily offer support elsewhere in the group.

The company has completed three acquisitions this year – two since the formal merger of Aston Scott and Lark completed in July.

The group acquired Ingram, Hawkins and Nock in March, Michael James Insurance in July and Pharos Insurance Brokers in September.

All 18 of the former Aston Scott and Lark offices have now rebranded to Aston Lark, and Blanc said history had taught the industry that quick integration is key.

“When we set out to do the merger our watchword was that we were all about integration,” Blanc said. “When you look back in history at the businesses that have gone wrong in our sector it’s often been because they haven’t integrated properly.

“They’ve left businesses alone to do their own thing and then at some point someone tries to integrate it, but the moment has gone.”

Blanc said that firms should start integrating as soon as the acquisition is completed.

And at Aston Lark he said his team starts the integration planning months before the deal has been completed.

He said: “We think about integration almost from the first meeting with a broker. We think about how the broker will fit in with us and if we find that it’s not going to fit then we don’t proceed.

“There’s no point doing the most financially attractive deal out there if it’s not going to fit culturally.”

Aston Lark, which currently stands at around £300m GWP and 600 staff, hopes to complete around four or five acquisitions each year. Blanc said he was interested in brokers with a specialist niche area.

He said: “As far as we are concerned, being a generalist jack-of-all-trades broker is probably not the optimum way to be nowadays.

“We would much rather be specialists in lots of different niches. So each time we make an acquisition we hope to acquire a specialism with that acquisition.”

Digitalisation

But alongside acquisitions and integration, Blanc says a key focus for the group is digitalisation of the commercial space.

Blanc says the risks of commercial clients taking online advice and subsequently underinsuring themselves is one of his biggest concerns in the industry.

This underinsurance risk is lessened through going to traditional advice led brokers like Aston Lark and talking through their insurance needs face-to-face.

But Blanc appreciates there is a balance to strike between offering sound advice and embracing digitalisation.

He said: “The role of a broker is something that the whole industry needs to promote and continue to get out there.

“But we’ve got to help ourselves and we’ve got to be tech savvy, so we can still appeal to millennials, while providing the advice that’s needed.”

Areas that the Aston Lark management have discussed include the creation of an app to gather information and provide advice, and ways to make documentation more customer-friendly.

However, Blanc said the increasing number of regulatory requirements on what clients must be informed of is making this task more difficult.

He suggested partnering with an insurtech would be an option Aston Lark may take up.

And he said the adoption of new technology is something many of the traditional brokers are now putting more money into.

“The reality is for anyone to revolutionise the placement of commercial insurance is going to require some deep pockets,” he said.

“But what brokers have shown that they’re incredibly willing to do is adopt new technologies.

“A lot of brokers might look old fashioned, a lot of them are now developing their websites and using apps and communicating with clients in the best way they know how.”

M&A market

Blanc is optimistic about how Aston Lark can grow moving forward.

He says the merger has united Aston Scott’s strengths in the motor trade and Lark’s strengths in employee benefits and private clients.

And this has presented cross-sale opportunities which Blanc hopes will be enhanced by more acquisitions.

The only requirement Aston Lark looks for in potential acquisitions is that they have more than £1m brokerage and that they share the group’s culture.

Blanc ruled out a big money swoop for a larger broker so soon after the merger, but said there was no shortage of options in the current M&A market.

He said the high number of deals being completed was healthy for the industry.

He added: “There’s still a healthy number of brokers out there and if you’re a broker you should want there to be a healthy M&A market because one day everybody in business ultimately wants to retire and cash in their chips.

“Having a healthy M&A market helps everybody’s value and helps everyone realise their life’s ambitions.”

Blanc’s mantra is that he wants Aston Lark to be a “big company that always acts like a small company” and he says with the current pool of brokers out there, the group could treble in size over the next five years.

Blanc added: “There’s absolutely no limit to how big we can grow because the insurance market is enormous.”