Alliance articles

Unholy alliance

John McLaren-Stewart has always wanted to do things differently and when he set up Alliance Insurance in 2000 he shook up the UK insurance market.The company's non-stuffy approach has seen it enjoy rapid growth, and that's just the start as he tells Business 550

Working in insurance wasn't the first thing John McLaren-Stewart had in mind when the gregarious Scot left his native Dundee for the bright lights of London back in the early 1980s.

A former garage mechanic, he and his new wife decided to start a new life in the capital, after he returned to college to complete an HND in Engineering.

The pair quickly settled down to life in London, and father of three McLaren-Stewart, armed with his new qualification, took a job x-raying gearboxes on F1 cars in Woolwich. It was during his time south of the river, that he first caught sight of the City, "sparkling", as he says, "like a jewel in the night sky on the other side of the Thames."

His career in insurance started shortly afterwards when he decided to buy himself a PC and printer for £50, and with copies of his CV, literally walked the streets of London for two days solid until he landed a job with Sun Alliance as a Motor Clerk.

"As soon as I started working in the City I knew it was what I'd always wanted to do. It was so inspiring. There is so much going on that you couldn't help but get a real buzz out of it."

McLaren-Stewart had never been the most ambitious of people ("I'd always been a bit of a dreamer though") until that point, but working within the City, his belief soon surfaced that "it's not just important to win; it's important the other guy loses badly!"

"I found myself inspired by the people around me who were doing better than me, and I wanted to be like them. I quickly realised that nothing comes to those that wait but those that hustle."

McLaren-Stewart quickly rose through ranks before deciding to leave to work for other insurers, as far apart as Aberdeen and Bognor Regis, including Layton Blackham, Christie Group and Aon.

It wasn't until his late thirties that McLaren-Stewart first realised that he wanted to go it alone and set up his own insurance company. Together with two colleagues, they developed a business plan, which would eventually become Alliance Insurance, with each taking a distinct role within the new business. Explains McLaren-Stewart: "We decided to attack the midmarket, which is the most productive sector of the economy, but often the most poorly served."

The company's philosophy was, and remains, extremely simple. "We tell every single one of our customers the same thing - you keep taking the risks in business and we'll protect the downside." It is a principle which appears to have worked with turnover, following two acquisitions, now hovering around the £14m mark.

He was also determined that Alliance would be different from other insurance in the market - by taking what he calls "a holistic approach to business protection." Today, this value-added model includes Health and Safety Audits & Management, Asbestos Surveys, Disaster Recovery Planning, Financial Risk Management and Legal Risk Management in addition to the more traditional insurance services.

McLaren-Stewart is a big one for continuous learning, as anyone who has spent anytime with him will know, introducing an intensive training and development programme within the company called 'Evolution'.

On the back of a year spent studying Financial Analysis, he is soon to embark on a three year Open University Degree in Economics to enable him, he adds, to better understand the world in which many of his clients operate.

This proactive approach has paid dividends in the number of clients that have been won, with 600 business customers and 2,500 personal customers on its books, serviced by a team of 40 staff across four offices in the South East (the company has its headquarters in Bury St Edmunds).

McLaren-Stewart could be forgiven for being a little blasé about it all, given the meteoric rise of the business. For him, however, it is less to do with "fast cars and more about changing people's perceptions about what it is insurance brokers can actually do for their customers." It does have its rewards though, allowing him to take his three children to see Chelsea, although his team will always be Dundee, he adds.

His forthright opinions have brought him to the attention of various bodies, including the DTI, who recently invited him to become a member of its Small Business Council, which reports into the Small Business Service (he's also on the CBI Enterprise Council). He often speaks with Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt, acting as a sounding board, a role he's not afraid to admit, he enjoys. "I am one of a number of people who have been brought in to help balance the needs of business and Government."

While all of this is going on in the background, McLaren-Stewart remains totally focused on his business, which he doesn't mind telling you, is an all-consuming passion."

He believes Alliance Insurance has only just scratched the surface, and confidently predicts it will be turning over £22m within three years. He's also looking to open additional offices, with Birmingham the first in his sights.

"We've done very well so far, and we've learnt a lot along the way but I think this is just the start in terms of showing our customers what insurance brokers can offer."

Reproduced with kind permission of Business 550.