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Giles adds further to it's South Eastern presence

Giles Insurance Brokers, one of the UK’s leading brokers, has acquired Kent-based Shephards Insurance brokers following a flurry of activity in the south east.

Shephards services a range of commercial clients and provides a number of specialist areas of cover for trades and associations in the construction and professional areas.

The purchase of Shephards follows last week’s acquisition of Godalming-based Sutton Barnard Ltd.

The services offered by Shephards will complement those offered by Giles’ existing offices in Beckenham and Croydon.

Shephards Insurance brokers was founded over 100 years ago by Thomas Shephard. It is now a thriving Insurance broker which commands £14.4 million in premium income and employs over 50 staff at its Orpington office. Three of its directors – Jeff Laidler, Mark Richardson and David Kinghorn – will remain with the firm while Mike Buckle will leave to pursue other interests.

Mark Richardson, Construction Director at Shephards Insurance, said: “This is a great development for our staff and clients.

“It will very much be business as usual. We will continue to offer our clients the high quality service they are used to and in turn they will benefit from the economies of scale which come with channelling their business to a larger broker with a national reach.

“We are looking forward to working with Giles and to growing our business across Kent and the South East.”

Shephards expertise in the construction sector has seen the company arrange cover for major national contracts and it continues to offer a range of solutions for clients from across the industry.

Howard Pearson, Regional Managing Director of Giles Insurance Brokers said: “This latest acquisition is a reflection of our ambitious growth plan following major private equity investment in the firm.

“There is a huge potential for growth in the south of England and the acquisition of Shephards and Sutton Barnard Ltd will help us strengthen our presence across the area as well as bringing on board a number of new specialisms.”

Private equity firm Charterhouse Capital Partners and Bank of Scotland Corporate have recently provided Giles with £500 million of investment funding in order to accelerate Giles’ consolidation of smaller commercial brokers across the UK.

News of the Shephards Insurance and Sutton Barnard deals follow the recent acquisitions of Tyne and Wear-based Elliot Garden, commercial lines specialist broker Robinson Leslie, Birmingham-based Midland Risk Management and David Moore and Company as well as Welsh brokers DS Howell.

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.

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