The owner of Glasgow insurance brokerage Kelvin Smith has said the company is set for record turnover of £15 million as it heads into its 40th year of trading.
Managing director Stephen Travers, who was hired as the firm’s first employee in 1983, said the firm is now looking to expand further having successfully overcome the pandemic turbulence that rocked the commercial insurance industry. He has identified haulage, construction and hospitality as key areas for growth.
Founded in November 1982 by financial advisors Gordon Smith and Andy McGlennan, Kelvin Smith works with approximately 3,000 clients across a range of sectors and is particularly strong in the construction, hospitality and property sectors. Its expansion plans include the acquisition of smaller brokerage firms across Scotland.
Mr Travers, who became a partner in 1990 and took over the business in 1995, said the firm has increased revenues by £1m per year in the last decade because of its 96 per cent customer retention rate and positive word-of-mouth. He attributed this to the values passed down to him by the firm’s founders.
“Their philosophy is still key to the business – first and foremost your clients need to trust you on advice and on price,” he said.
“We’ve grown because our clients trust us, and they tell other people about us. That’s why we have continually expanded the business and will continue to do so.”
During the pandemic Kelvin Smith’s 40 staff focused on identifying which policies would cover clients for Covid-related disruptions. Mr Travers noted that only a “very small” percentage were able to claim, nearly always because of unintentional wording in a contract.
He added that if everyone had been covered, it would have “destroyed the industry”. Even so, he said he was proud to be fighting for businesses and the hospitality sector in particular.
“We will exhaust every avenue to meet the challenges ahead and are now looking to acquire smaller brokerages across Scotland, as we expect the market to become increasingly difficult for smaller firms,” he said.
Kelvin Smith began trading as a financial services and estate agency business offering car and home insurance. It turned its focus to commercial insurance in the mid-1980s after Direct Line entered the market.
“Everyone said we were finished when Direct Line, then Churchill, Esure and Admiral changed the home and car insurance market,” Mr Travers said.
“Although we still broker home and car insurance for high net worth individuals, we found real success in business insurance as businesses really see the value in the fact we make sure that nothing is overlooked. People want to deal with people.”
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Mr Travers said the industry that he joined as Youth Opportunities Programme trainee earning £23.50 per week is now “so much more competitive” than 40 years ago.
“There’s an over-supply of brokers in Glasgow but we’ve survived and prospered because we get the information and advice right,” he said.
“Policyholders having the right arrangement and the right depth of disclosures in place is vital. We are very diligent to do everything we can to ensure all disclosures are fully factual.
“When it comes to big claims, insurers are forensic – so we need to be forensic from day one to protect our clients from being caught out in the event of a claim.”
Among Kelvin Smith’s long-standing clients is Guiseppe Marini, head of the Tony Macaroni restaurant chain and the Marini brand of fish and chip shops.
“Back when he had one chip shop he was lecturing me about not being ambitious enough,” Mr Travers said. “Twenty years later he has 650 employees and he really encouraged me to go for it, so I did.
“I wouldn’t have expected in a million years that it would go this well.”
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