As a former high-net-worth underwriter James Whittock (pictured) has seen first-hand what the insurance industry does well and also where it needs to make improvements. And it was an example of the latter which underpinned the evolution of Evoque Group, which Whittock leads as business development director.
Started in 2015, Evoque originally launched as a company carrying out high-net-worth pre-risk appraisals, he said, and developed from there into a small claims reports business. It was during this time that the team started to notice that they were dealing with items that weren’t damaged beyond repair as the result of a claim.
“So, we asked the question – ‘what happens to them?’” he said. “Generally, the answer we got back was, it’s either left with the client, or it’s thrown in the bin, or the loss adjuster makes arrangements for it to be sold on. None of which is maximising its value. And we thought, well, there must be a better way of doing this.
“So we sat down and put a very basic process together and went to a couple of insurer clients that we had and said, ‘Look, we’re looking to try this, what do you think?’ They told us to give it a go and the first batch we had were some items that had been left in a cupboard at an insurance company for the last five years. We sold them on and it really started from there.”
Seven years later, Evoque has four warehouses, a team operating in the Midlands and another out of a London office, supporting a panel of 12 insurers and four loss adjusters. In addition, the business has evolved significantly more into the commercial market, he said, though it still keeps its hand in with the high-net-worth space.
It has been a great journey so far, Whittock said, though in real terms it’s still very early days and the key driver of his enthusiasm for the business and its evolution has been the underlying sense that, “there is a better way to do this.” Since launching in 2015, Evoque has paid nearly £1 million back to the insurance industry in addition to saving hundreds of tonnes of waste from ending up in landfill.
“But there’s still a huge amount of waste going to landfill from the insurance industry,” he said. “We want to try and assist with alleviating or reducing that. We feel that insurers, as the only essential ‘owner’ of the item, haven’t [traditionally] been getting best value. And we believe that by selling the item to the retail market, we can get the best value for the insurer.”
Two key considerations are turning the attention of loss adjusters and insurers alike to innovative salvage solutions – pricing considerations amid the current inflationary environment and ESG commitments. On the former, Whittock noted that Evoque offers insurers and adjusters an additional tool in their toolkit when they come to the settlement of a claim.
“If they’ve been pushed by the policyholder to settle the case or they don’t want the item back, they know that in good conscience, they can give it to us and get a good return back,” he said. “On the buyer side, the expectation of the purchaser around the condition of that salvage item is very different to the policyholder who wants the item to look new again.”
On the sustainability side, he said, there are a lot of items going to landfills that don’t need to because of policyholders’ expectations. Looking at the commercial market, he noted that if commercial stock or machinery is even slightly damaged, the policyholder cannot sell it, while Evoque can market the items as second-hand or slightly damaged with success.
There is a markedly increased interest in the second life of items, which is largely driven by the interplay of an accelerated sustainability agenda alongside an increased push for efficiency. People are trying to reduce costs wherever they can, he said, which is increasing interest in the circular economy – which is where Evoque fits in.
“More people are looking at buying secondhand items and that plays well into what we’re trying to do,” he said. “And insurers are facing increased pressures on ESG and on trying to get to net-zero. This is why we feel this is the right time to push out this sustainability message, in order to support insurers in their goal to get to net-zero.”
Whittock noted that what has been interesting to see is the reduced resistance of policyholders to items being repurposed in this manner amid increased conversations around sustainability, and the part consumers have to play in that agenda. On the insurer side, he said, Evoque’s focus now is on continuing to generate increased awareness of salvage opportunities – and on continuing to listen to the needs of the market so they can provide a transparent, accessible and simple solution tailored to alleviate its pain points.
“In the last 12 months, we launched our waste-saving calculator whereby we weigh every item we receive and we give that back as a metric for them to use with their ESG reporting,” he said. “We’re also looking to expand our client base, so we’re looking at new insurers. And we’re looking to move into the marine cargo space because we feel there’s a gap there in terms of getting best value for insurers and also ensuring that items don’t go to landfill.
“We have a small team within the business who constantly look at better ways to sell and dispose of items in a greener way. Nothing that comes into our warehouses goes to landfill. If there are items, we recycle them or sell them for parts. So [the mindset of our team] is one of out-of-the-box thinking and being entrepreneurially minded. And as I say to the team, if it looks obvious that you can’t sell an item, think again. Because there is a buyer for everything.”
