SRIS eyes £250m GWP within two years

SRIS is the retail arm of Specialist Risk Group and has a current headcount of 225 people.

“Our growth trajectory over the last three years, since SRG was formed as a brand, we [SRIS] have roughly doubled in size every two years,” said Thorne, pictured.

“That gets harder the bigger we get, but we’d like to feel we can continue that momentum.”

Thorne stressed that while £250m was not a hard and fast target for the end of 2024 it was a “great aspiration”.

“We won’t buy ourselves there for the sake of the number. We will do it cautiously and strategically,” he underlined.

Organic growth will be a fundamental part of the process.

In 2022 the business grew just over 20% of which more than half – 12% – was organic growth.

“We target double digit organic growth every year,” Thorne confirmed. “That is what we are expecting in 2023.”

Acquisitions will still be key (see box).

Last year it only bought motor-trade specialist Hamilton Leigh. This year it has already snapped up Fleet & Commercial, adding £11m of GWP and 20 staff, as well as Consort Insurance bringing in £19m of GWP and 23 people.

Like the GWP, Thorne said there is no target on the number of acquisitions per year.

“We are selective. The start of this year we have seen a considerable increase in the amount of prospects around the market,” he observed.

“I suspect we will do at least two or three more in retail this calendar year.”

Culture

According to Thorne, cultural fit is crucial.

“If we can’t see a fit for both sides we politely shake hands and walk away. It is very much about the seller engaging with our journey and us engaging with theirs,” he said. “We are perfectly happy to buy smaller specialist businesses with a lot of growth opportunity.”

In keeping with its name, the broker has no interest in acquiring generalist firms. “We are sticking to our knitting. It is about specialist businesses for us,” he said.

Thorne set out highlighting it was “quite ruthless” about how it defined a specialism.

“Every broker is trying to put themselves out there as a specialist,” he acknowledged. “Three years ago, we probably had four genuine specialisms in waste, construction, motor fleet and private ambulance. Now we are definitely north of 15 probably up to 20.”

Geography

In his view there is no overriding need to prioritise grabbing particular further areas. Instead future buys will depend on what is available, either adding a new string to the bow or enhancing current expertise.

He pointed out: “Construction is one of those sectors of the market that has so many specialisms attached to it that you can build out.”

The retail business has historically built up a heartland of London and the South East. Beyond this it has no offices north of Nottingham and Newbury is its most western base.

It has no specific desire to have a national footprint.

“Geography is not one of our key buying decisions,” Thorne explained. “We will buy a good business regardless of where it is based.”

Continuing: “The exciting bit about this group now is we have enough pins in the map from a specialist perspective that we can start to join them together.

“Over the last 12 months the business has matured to the point the cross-sell activity is now taking place.”

Focused

Thorne came on board in November last year with SRG praising his “successful track record of building broking teams to deliver organic growth” and “extensive experience of integrating acquired companies, teams and individual talent”.

He joined from Gallagher, where he was a regional managing director.

His remit had involved integrating specialist bits of retail, such as the public sector and housing, which did not fit in the regional network model after the Giles and Oval deals.

He had originally joined Stackhouse Poland in 2010 and his time there included running the London office which, he noted, doubled in size in two years. He also highlighted the 14 acquisitions Stackhouse made, including Lucas Fettes, before ultimately being sold to Gallagher.

“I have worked for three really good people focused organisations,” he said. “I have loved building specialists business.”

He concluded that the environment he had found at SRIS was one where everybody wants to collaborate: “I am really enjoying it. It is fast paced and hard work.

“I can see a pathway for this business to be a significant part of the UK independent market.”

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