Howden has formally opened a commercial broking office in Wrexham. It has staffed the office partly with brokers hired from one of its biggest rivals, and its main target is a manufacturing base that is about to receive a large injection of public money.
The broker, which describes itself as employee-owned, marked the opening with an afternoon event at The Fat Boar, the independent pub and restaurant on Yorke Street. Clients, trading partners and local business owners attended, and a charity raffle raised money for Nightingale House Hospice. The hospice provides free specialist palliative care across Wrexham, Flintshire and East Denbighshire, and as far as Barmouth and the border towns of Oswestry and Whitchurch. Howden has not said how much the raffle raised.
The Wrexham team has five brokers so far. Nathan Brookfield and Andrew Kells joined earlier in the year. Three more arrived this month: Victoria Bonynge and Connor Hughes, both from Brown & Brown, and Daryl Jones from C&C Insurance Brokers.
Gary Stevens, Howden's regional managing director for commercial in Wales, is leading the office. He said North Wales had been the natural place to expand. Howden says the move reflects growing demand from local firms for specialist risk and insurance advice. Stevens was also direct about what the firm is aiming for: to become "the leading broker in and around Wrexham".
Read next: Howden launches North Wales commercial presence
The office has been coming for a while. In June, Howden hired Brookfield from Lothbury UK as an account executive based in Wrexham. At the time, Stevens called North Wales central to the group's Welsh growth plans. Brookfield grew up in the city and said Howden's employee ownership model was part of the reason he joined, describing the firm as "actively investing and building its presence in Wrexham".
The word "first" needs a small qualification. This is Howden's first dedicated commercial office in North Wales, but not its first presence in the region. In October 2025 it bought Gott & Wynne, a general broker based in Llandudno known for insuring Morgan sports cars and classic cars alongside commercial and property business. Llandudno gave Howden a branch in North Wales. Wrexham is where it is building a commercial team from scratch.
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Bonynge's brief is to look after manufacturing and food and drink businesses across Wales, and the timing is good. The Wrexham and Flintshire Investment Zone has £160m of government backing and is focused on advanced manufacturing. It is expected to attract £1bn of private investment and create 6,000 jobs. Its main sites include Wrexham Industrial Estate, home to JCB, and the land around Hawarden Airport, where Airbus is based. New factories, supply chains and staff all create demand for property, liability, engineering and cyber cover. Howden has clearly concluded it needs brokers on the ground to win that work.
The wider business base is growing too. Wrexham Council, citing provisional ONS figures for 2023, counts 11,485 active enterprises in the county borough. That was up almost 8% on the previous year, well ahead of the growth rate for Wales and the UK. Wrexham became a city on 1 September 2022, and its football club's Hollywood owners have given it a global profile few places of its size enjoy.
Taking two brokers from Brown & Brown in a single month is a pointed move. The US group's UK retail network is anchored by its acquisition of Global Risk Partners, and it has been buying in Wales as well, including Maesteg-based R McGee Insurance Brokers. Experienced commercial brokers are thin on the ground in regional markets like North Wales. A new office there usually depends on persuading people to leave a competitor.
Howden has done this in Wales before. Its southern operation grew out of Aston Lark, which joined the group in 2022 and took the Howden name the following year. Stevens then set out to double the team, and a dedicated Swansea officefollowed in 2024. When Howden opened its Cardiff Gate office, Stevens called the city "the natural choice for our expansion". He used almost the same words about Wrexham.
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According to Howden, its UK and Ireland retail business has more than 7,000 staff in over 200 offices and places more than £3bn of premium. Five brokers in Wrexham is a small addition to that. But with Cardiff, Swansea, Wrexham and Llandudno now on the map, the group has a presence at both ends of the country. The next question is whether it moves into mid Wales.
