A new era for Hugh J Boswell
They may each be under 40, but a management triumverate is looking ahead to an exciting future at Norfolk-based Hugh J Boswell after completing a buy-out of the firm.
For more than a decade, long-serving team members Nick Chambers, Peter Foster, and Ashley Minors have worked with managing director Mike Minors helping to double the size of the specialist business and corporate insurance brokerage.
After preparing the three for life at the top of the business, Mr Minors is staying on at the firm as a director and focusing on his own clients while his homegrown team, including his son, take the 106-year-old organisation into a new era.
Mr Chambers, chief executive, said that key to the firm’s growth was a decision to split its focus, with a ‘community’ based business looking at local clients and a ‘schemes’ business working with national firms.
He said the three were “passionate” about the firm retaining its independence and was happy to work with businesses from one-man bands to large corporates.
“The three of us have been here for more than 30 years,” he said. “We have grown 50pc in the last five years and there is no intention of desire to slow down,” he added.
The firm, based at Carrow Hill in Norwich, employs 49 staff, with the business forecast to deal with £16m in premiums, while revenues will be around £3m.
It worked with the commercial team at Natwest in Norwich to secure the right finance for the management buy-out.
“The people we have here are very much like a family,” he said. “We have been talking about it for years and Mike has been training us and giving us the autonomy to run the business for quite some time. It was always the ambition for this team to buy him out.”
Mr Foster, managing director, added: “We are massively focused on growth. The biggest challenge for us is to continue what we have been doing for the last five years. Mike will be around for years. He wants to be around for a long time and look after his clients.”