Vista Insurance Brokers Ltd. has recorded a 32.7% increase in turnover up from £15.6M to £20.7M, for their annual reporting period to July 2021. Further growth at their head office in Manchester and regional bases in Birmingham, Lancaster, and London is in the planning stages, as Vista aims to increase turnover to around £50m within the next five years.
Whilst current growth has been organic, they are not ruling out acquisitions to reach that target.
The company’s success comes against the backdrop of a tough economic and social environment, as the Covid-19 pandemic and the Brexit fallout continues to impact businesses, increasing uncertainty and risk. A further challenge has been the ‘hard market’ conditions for insurance buyers, which has seen pricing pushed higher and insurers’ appetite and capacity to write risk become severely restricted.
Vista’s continued growth has been attributed to their ability to meet these challenges through high levels of client service, the delivery of innovative solutions that lessen the impact of price increases while maintaining cover, along with supporting staff wellbeing.
To ensure quality standards are maintained, the company has made 12 new appointments, increasing the team to 41 over the last 12 months. Several internal promotions have also been made, as the business remains committed to developing and investing in their personnel.
As restrictions have lifted, Vista is getting out more to see clients in a controlled manner to suit them and ensuring their team can have the right balance of remote working and office-based working.
Vista CEO, Gavin Ruben explains; “As the pandemic hit in 2020, we responded quickly and ensured our clients were able to adapt their policies as required. The hospitality and event sectors were hit very hard and our commitment to ensuring high levels of client service saw us proactively contacting clients to provide much-needed support.
“Our Corporate, Construction and Private Equity division have all faced diverse challenges and the experience and expertise of these teams enabled us to respond quickly and effectively. As premiums increased across a wide range of business sectors, we saw an increase in new clients looking to us to help, as they sought not only the most cost-effective policies but a team with the necessary knowledge and experience to help them navigate their way through this challenging period. Whist some businesses in our sector have been forced to make staff redundant, we have been able to hire more people, boosting our capability to provide clients with high levels of personal service and expertise in a range of sector specialisms.”
Vista Specialist Risks division is one area that has seen continued growth due to the technical expertise and experience offered for niche areas including Latent Defects insurance, providing property developers with long term, project specific security they control. Vista also plans further expansion of their highly successful international division, as they establish more overseas partnerships.
Subsidiary company, Vista (NW) Ltd. (VNWL) is the newest arm of the Vista group and was set up to offer a range of solutions to meet the needs of SMEs in the Cheshire region. Since launching in January 2021, the company has seen strong growth and has high expectations for the remainder of the year. Managing Director of VNWL, Dan Stockley said; “As everyone experienced unprecedented levels of uncertainty, clients needed a personal service more than ever. They needed to be able to contact us as and when they needed us and that is the service we offer. Our experience and integrity, along with a forward-thinking ethos, enabled us to provide competitive solutions to protect businesses and this has resulted in above expected growth during the first six months of trading.”
In addition to the new challenges, maintaining general operations, regulatory processes and ensuring staff wellbeing remains paramount. Vista are currently developing a new Employee Charter which they view as essential to underpin the growth plan. The scheme will ensure employees are supported in many different areas via a range of benefits due to be introduced, including flexible working hours, gym membership, childcare vouchers, and private healthcare, to enable a positive work-life balance.
Vista are also extending their apprenticeship programme with two more personnel due to join the team in the next 12 months. This will enable them to acquire both academic knowledge and practical skills in their chosen fields.
As the company continues to grow, so does Vista’s commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility with several new initiatives due to launch over the next 12 months. The company is set to become carbon-neutral in the next 12 months and as part of the Employee Charter will offer an electric car scheme. Employees will also be offered time off for voluntary work, as the business continues to make donations and raise funds for the Norwood charity, who support vulnerable children and their families, children with special educational needs and people with learning disabilities and autism. There are also plans to support grassroots sport, backing a range of clubs and teams for children and young people playing cricket, football, and rugby.
