Discovering Formby and Warrington

My challenge is to ensure that Lloyd's maintains the same standards (and also enjoys the same benefits!) in the UK as it does overseas, especially with regard to our relationships with the intermediaries that we rely upon for business. For instance with coverholders, there is a clear benefit to knowing them better and thus attracting more good business into Lloyd's. Well-managed coverholders are a great source of business revenue and supporting this community should foster the development of new opportunities.

A visit to two prospective new coverholders recently took me to Formby and Warrington. Clearly there is more to Formby than the lend of its name to the famous musical hall actor George Formby - who adopted it when he spotted a goods train heading in that direction!  By the same token Warrington isn't just the place of the famous 1981 by-election that saw former Labour cabinet member Roy Jenkins narrowly defeated as the first Social Democratic fielded candidate.  As a school boy I remember giggling at the media reference to him as 'Warrington Woy' taking a swipe at his rather obvious and famous speech impediment but my own rather more recent impediment, was equally concerning - where are Warrington and Formby?

Putting my limited 'South of Watford' knowledge to one side, I discovered Formby to be one of the more affluent towns in Merseyside with huge SME potential and Warrington also enjoying similar pockets of development and light-industry whilst also benefitting from being strategically positioned between Manchester and Liverpool. 

The Lloyd's community in London remains at the heart of the London insurance market which in turn is at the centre of the global insurance industry. Yet with increasing reliance on the internet and online selling, isn't it also necessary to understand how insurance intermediaries operate in towns like Formby and Warrington?  I believe that the answer to that is an unequivocal 'yes' because while it is important for Lloyd's to understand how to exploit electronic media to its fullest extent, we mustn't lose sight of the fact that insurance will always be a people business. 

Managing agents with service company operations have long since recognised that to do business in regional UK it is important to be there. For managing agents who don’t have their own infrastructures around the UK, it is vital we ensure that relationships with intermediaries continue to be forged in places like Formby and Warrington if we are to compete for SME accounts.

And so my geographical naivety of the UK will continue to be tested with a trip to Sussex – mustn't forget my green wellies!