Insurance giant Howden has opened a new Greater Manchester hub 鈥 and the group鈥檚 海角视频 boss hopes to hire more staff in the area.
Carl Shuker, CEO of Howden 海角视频 & Ireland, says the North West is a key growth area for the company and that he hopes the Salford office will grow along with the company.
Howden last year bought Manchester鈥檚 Reich Insurance to grow its North West operations. That followed the 2020 acquisition of personal insurance broker A-Plan, giving it retail branches in Altrincham and Wilmslow. The acquisitions have since been rebranded as Howden.
Now it has opened a new North West office in Chapel Street, Salford 鈥 which it is calling Howden House. The building is home to some 200 people, including employees from other firms acquired by Howden such as 海角视频Global and SPF Private Clients.
Mr Shuker said he and his team were hugely impressed by Greater Manchester.
He said: 鈥淚 just think it's full of energy. It's full of excitement. It's growing. And although I'm Southern-based, you hear all the time about how Manchester is really a happening region.
鈥淪o it makes sense for us to be there. And our plan is to double the size of the business by 2030. That鈥檚 not that long away. And that ambition is really backed by our track record.
鈥淎nd with that doubling of growth, we鈥檒l bring more highly-skilled jobs to local people.
鈥淚 just love the energy of the people. I was there at the opening and the sense of passion was so palpable. Everybody really cares. Everybody's really excited. And I feed on the positive energy of others, if you know what I mean. That's very exciting for us.鈥
Howden announced in March 2023 , with the group鈥檚 executive chairman Peter Blanc saying: 鈥淭heir reputation is outstanding and their areas of specialism, particularly in real estate and construction as well as healthcare, are completely aligned with Howden. All of our discussions were centred on the future and how the Reich team would fit within the Howden business 鈥 and the answer is that it鈥檚 a perfect match.鈥
The deal was formally completed last month, with Reich being rebranded as Howden.
Mr Shuker said: 鈥淲e acquired Reich as a strategic acquisition to establish us in the North West, and now the North West is really important for us because there is so much economic growth, so much inward investment.
鈥淲e see a really nice opportunity to serve the local business community as well as those who've got car insurance, home insurance. So we've got a couple of large branches there. We've got Macclesfield, Wilmslow and Altrincham.
鈥淗aving that Manchester hub really enables us to leverage our scale to invest in our brand, to invest in growth and support our clients with all of their insurance needs locally.鈥
Howden has some 6,000 team members in the 海角视频 and Ireland, with some 200 branches. Mr Shuker said: 鈥淥ne of the key differentiators for us is that, especially when it comes to personal insurance, it's (generally) all online 鈥 but we offer an alternative where actually you can go in or pick up the phone. You don't press one for this, press two for that. You speak to the person you want to speak to and they answer the phone quickly.
鈥淪o the establishment of Howden House really cements our ambition in the area.鈥
Staff at Howden House will work across Howden鈥檚 portfolio, from working with SMEs and construction firms to covering home and car insurance. Mr Shuker said: 鈥淚f you think of an insurance need, we can cover it from that centre. And likewise from the three satellite branches."
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