Dickson Group, an independent insurance broker, has unveiled a growth strategy targeting a doubling of its gross written premium from £50 million to £100 million by 2030, backed by three senior appointments, a new Belfast office and a consolidation of its regional branch network.
The group is reorganising its branches into modern regional hubs anchored by its head office on Dromore Road in Omagh and a new office at The Kelvin in Belfast, bringing insurance specialists together and investing in technology to improve client experience.
Alongside the Northern Ireland restructuring, Dickson Group is accelerating growth in the Republic of Ireland through its sister brand, Dickson & Wilson Insurance Brokers, which previously set out its own five-year expansion plan after opening a second office in Monaghan, targeting acquisitions of companies with trusted reputations and values aligned with its own.
Founded in 1992 by Ashley and Ruth Dickson (pictured) as a general insurance broker, the group has grown into the largest independently owned broker network in the UK and Ireland by branch count. It operates as the UK's 73rd largest broker overall, a ranking confirmed at the time of its most recent acquisition and one that is likely to have shifted further up the table as GWP has grown from £30 million at that point to the £50 million base the group now cites for this new growth plan.
The group's most recent purchase, Holywood-based DTM Insurance Brokers in 2025, was its 14th acquisition in 33 years of trading, and brought the network to 15 offices. The current Belfast hub announcement, with a new office at The Kelvin, extends that footprint further.
That acquisition history gives useful context for the scale of the current ambition: Dickson Group has reached its present GWP base entirely through a combination of organic growth and targeted acquisitions of family-owned Northern Irish businesses, and this strategy explicitly continues that pattern.
The strategy will be led by Ashley Dickson, managing director, supported by three newly appointed senior leaders. Richard Garrad joins as sales director, bringing 11 years of Belfast-based sales and marketing experience, and will oversee group-wide sales strategy and commercial client growth. Liam Foley joins as business improvement director, tasked with leading the rollout of new software, automated processes and connected digital systems across the business. Michael Gray joins as finance director, leading financial strategy, governance and capital allocation to support both organic growth and future acquisitions.
Ashley Dickson said the plan sets a clear goal for the group to double its business over the next five years, and that the new senior leadership additions add strength to the business. He said the combination of the new Belfast office, the restructured regional hubs and the strengthened leadership team is building the capability and scale needed to reach the target, adding that the group will continue recruiting at senior level and remains keen to acquire more insurance brokerages across Ireland, particularly those that share its values and want to grow alongside it.
Richard Garrad said reaching £100 million GWP means focusing on expanding commercial client relationships while driving ambitious new business strategies, and that the new Belfast hub at The Kelvin puts the group at the heart of the business community, positioning it to deliver market-leading risk solutions across both Northern Ireland and the Republic.
The timing of a Belfast-anchored growth push is notable against the backdrop of Northern Ireland's specific home insurance market conditions. Recent reporting found Northern Ireland homeowners pay more than three times the UK average for home insurance, a gap driven by a smaller provider base, elevated flood risk in specific districts and continued regulatory scrutiny, with the Association of British Insurers not even publishing a regional premium breakdown for the region.
That combination of structural market limitations and a comparative lack of transparent data points to a market where local knowledge and tailored broker advice carry more weight than in more competitive parts of Great Britain - precisely the positioning Dickson Group's regional hub model is built around.
Northern Ireland's broking market has also seen consolidation activity from outside players in recent years, with ABL Group, the Northern Ireland arm of Brown & Brown Europe, acquiring two family-owned Northern Ireland claims and consultancy businesses, Davison & Associates and Davison Lamont, as part of its own regional expansion. That activity underscores that Dickson Group is not the only consolidator active in the market, even as it remains the largest independently owned network by branch count.
What sets this plan apart from a typical growth announcement is how directly it names its own mechanism. Acquisition has been Dickson Group's primary growth engine for more than three decades, and this strategy explicitly continues that pattern rather than pivoting toward organic growth alone.
For independent brokerages across Northern Ireland and the Republic considering their own succession or exit options, Ashley Dickson's direct invitation to firms "that share our values and want to grow with us" signals the group intends to keep functioning as a consolidation platform for family-owned businesses specifically, even as larger UK and international consolidators like Brown & Brown continue their own separate expansion into the same regional market.
