H&H Insurance Brokers (HHIB) has kickstarted 2022 with a bang, welcoming the acquisition of Tynedale Insurance Services and the news it has received the Feefo Platinum Trusted Service Award (for the third year running) in the same week. Discussing the latter accomplishment, MD Paul Graham (pictured) noted that the Carlisle-headquartered brokerage firm is especially proud of how it has maintained such high service levels during the clamour of COVID-19.
“It has been quite an interesting period for us, we’ve actually grown,” he said, “As an agri-specialist, the vast majority of our clients have had to just keep going, and thankfully they have. When you’re out in a field somewhere on your own, you’re naturally self-isolated and so agriculture has gone from strength to strength. Farms have been busier, and prices have helped that. I’ve got competitors who are specialists in the commercial sector who I know have had it much worse than we have, so it has been an interesting picture for almost two years now.”
Keeping service levels elevated, through good times and tough times, has always been key to HHIB’s strategy and Graham highlighted that it was a sharing of this ethos that made the firm’s acquisition of Tynedale such an attractive proposition. He is delighted by the deal, he said, as it ticked all the boxes for him – representing geographic, strategic and cultural alignment. Like HHIB, Hexham-based Tynedale is an agri-specialist with a strong commercial book and a firm belief in the strength and power of independent brokers.
Graham already knew Joanne Lee, the firm’s founder, before the deal was struck and when she approached the team about a potential sale he was immediately interested because he knew the business well and it was obvious it would be a good fit. Tynedale is very strong in Northumberland where HHIB has quite a good presence, he said, and there were a variety of evident synergies including a shared philosophy and culture, and a similar client base.
“Joanne wanted to stay in the business, which was a key thing for me,” he said. “I’ve been approached by some other businesses to sell and typically [the business owner] wants to exit the part of that process. But we’re not a mass consolidator. We want to grow that book and having somebody like Joanne who has grown the business is really critical. She wanted to stay as part of that, and it made sense to bring us all together and to share our resources so both of us can grow.”
As part of the deal, Lee will become a director at HHIB, which exemplifies the goal of growing together. Graham emphasised how critical it was to HHIB and Tynedale to keep clients and staff alike informed of what was happening, and offered reassurances that it would not result in any upheaval. As it stands, nothing has changed for them, he said, but he hopes that in time the expanded services resulting from this merger will bring improvements for both businesses. “Business as usual - but even better”, is how Lee summed it up.
“For us as a broker, over the last few years, we’ve brought in asset finance and risk management and wealth management just to offer as broad a service base as we can to our rural and agricultural clients,” Graham said. “In a rural community, in a rural county, it’s very much a deeper relationship in the sense that there’s a lot of loyalty there, but you have to be there as part of their business. And that’s what gets us excited – when we’re with our clients, they see us as part of their business. So now, we’re able to offer Joanne’s clients [all those services] as well, which is fantastic – and she’s delighted with that too.”
Graham said he is also delighted by the people that will be joining HHIB as part of the acquisition, praising Tynedale’s team members as highly competent and very experienced. The team will continue to operate from its Hexham-based office and he highlighted that he has always been passionate about having an office in that location, as it’s so critical to the Northumberland market.
There’s an auction mart there, which is critical as HHIB is part of H&H Group which has auction marts across the north – in fact, the broking firm is based above one. That’s the business’s client base, he said, as about 65% of HHIB’s clients are farmers. Tynedale’s staff will remain in that office, in that key agricultural town, and he hopes that over time that will grow and expand.
Following a great start to the year, Graham looked to what he expects the next 11 months to bring and stated that the business will be introducing a few new services – including a live client portal. This will allow clients to access their documentation 24/7, which will add value to the service they are provided by their broker and differentiate HHIB from a lot of their competitors. In addition, the firm has introduced wealth management services, which will be a key focus going forward.
“The other big highlight is that we’ve got our own white-labelled farm specialist product, which is unique to the UK, nobody else has it,” he said. “For me, having an offering that can rival the main national player in the market gives us a tremendous advantage over the competition. So, those are probably the three key things. We’re not looking at any more acquisitions just yet but, if the right one comes along, after seeing what we’ve done with Tynedale, well, who knows?”
