Giles - <h2>Elliott Garden purchased to expand Giles’ reach</h2>

Elliott Garden purchased to expand Giles’ reach

Ambitious broker Giles Insurance Brokers has expanded into the North-east of England for the first time following the acquisition of Tyne and Wear-based independent intermediaries Elliott Garden.

Elliott Garden operates out of two offices in the North-east – Houghton le Spring and Washington.

The acquisition of Elliott Garden is the latest in a series of purchases made by Giles since being provided with £500 million of investment funding by Charterhouse and Bank of Scotland Corporate.

With a team of over 40 people, Elliott Garden is one of the Tyne & Wear’s most successful brokers and commands premium income of around £10 million across both commercial and personal business lines.

Owners Kevin Elliott and Ray Garden will remain with Giles following the acquisition and will spearhead Giles’ business development in the North-east.

Chris Giles, Chief Executive of Giles Insurance Brokers said: “Giles is a successful and growing company and we are keen to ensure we are represented across the length and breadth of the UK."

“The North-east was one area of the country where our presence was light and we’ve sought to address that with this purchase.

“We have a track record of buying regional businesses and growing them and we see the purchase of Elliott Garden very much following this trend.

“We believe there is tremendous opportunity in the Tyne & Wear area. The Elliott Garden team will remain intact and we have ambitions to grow the staff numbers in the North-east once all three offices become fully integrated under the Giles umbrella.

“We are currently in negotiations with a number of other potential acquisition targets and expect to be in a position to confirm further additions to the Giles group in the near future.”

The purchase of Elliott Garden comes in the wake of a number of recent tactical acquisitions by Giles. The company strengthened its presence in Surrey earlier this week with the acquisition of Godalming-based Sutton Barnard.

Birmingham-based Midland Risk Management, Robinson Leslie of Chester and DS Howell of Tonyrefail in Wales have also been snapped up in the last month as Giles’ steps up its regional acquisition programme.

Giles Insurance Brokers was recently acquired by private equity firm Charterhouse Capital Partners.

Charterhouse and Bank of Scotland Corporate have provided Giles with £500 million of funding in order to accelerate Giles’ consolidation of smaller commercial brokers across the UK.

Giles is one of the UK’s fastest growing commercial insurance brokers and Charterhouse’s backing will allow the company to escalate its acquisition strategy and build a business with £1 billion of Gross Written Premium.