What were you doing in 1970? It’s fair to say that for many of our readers, chances are they were not even born on that date. Yet, that is when Northampton-based insurance brokerage Pyke Smith & Cutler came to life, and it’s still going strong.
The family-run brokerage began in September that year, set up by John Cutler, Joe Pyke and Brian Smith who formed a partnership after working for three major insurance firms. With their wives providing secretarial and accounting support, the brokerage was truly family-run. While Pyke and Smith retired many years ago, Cutler continued coming into the office every day until the month before he died at 85, in 2016.
Now, it is his daughter Philippa who leads the firm in the role of managing director, having joined the company back in 1985.
“The business was set up to offer professional insurance broking services to mainly local businesses and clients with a strong emphasis on personal service,” she said.
“Over the decades, we’ve survived recessions, a complete change in the way the public buys personal insurance with the advent of the internet, Direct Line and the aggregator sites such as Compare the Market, incredibly tough trading conditions and we’ve resisted all offers to sell to a larger firm.
“We remain 100% independent and we’re proud to operate with exactly the same principle we started with in 1970, and the same ones my father held so close to his heart, to put the customer first - always.”
Now, she works alongside director Nicky Mason and three other female members of staff. The business began life in Kingsley, but moved to premises in Wellingborough Road in 1980, where it remains to this day.
