Commenting on Gallagher’s UK broking and underwriting business results for Q4 2021 and overall business performance for the year, Simon Matson, EMEA CEO said: “In the UK, Gallagher delivered a very strong result in Q4 2021 achieving organic growth of 12%. This success was shared across the divisions with UK Retail at 7%, and Speciality and the existing Gallagher Re businesses delivering growth in the high teens.
“Looking at 2021, as a whole clearly many of our clients continued to be impacted by the pandemic and the varying restrictions on the country so a major focus was helping clients to navigate the changing economic conditions. Our team did an excellent job on that front and client retention levels were extremely high and we hope that as 2022 progresses, we can look forward to more economic stability.
“Alongside strong retention, we had some great new business wins during the year. In particular our Specialty construction practice saw strong growth in its client base amongst UK and international clients, at the same time our financial risks and aerospace practices go from strength to strength, and finally the UK Retail public sector team saw a number of major client wins in the education sector.
“M&A activity was a continued major focus for us in the UK and globally, and we were delighted to agree the majority of our acquisition of Willis Re in December. This is a game changer for our reinsurance business, and saw us welcome close to 2,200 new employees to Gallagher.
“In October our Pen Underwriting business acquired Manchester Underwriting Management. This is a major step towards our stated goal of writing £1 billion gross written premium (GWP) by 2025, and added £60 million GWP plus 50 colleagues to the Pen team.
“Finally, at the start of 2021 we acquired Bollington into UK Retail, adding 400 new colleagues and strong digital capability that we will build on in 2022 and beyond. We continue to look for M&A opportunities in the UK and currently are in conversations with a number of potential merger partners.
“Recruitment has continued apace over the last year, and I am delighted with the level of talent that is joining Gallagher. We put a great deal of focus on making Gallagher a great place to work with excellent career opportunities, and alongside the people wo have joined through acquisitions, we’ve added nearly 1,000 new employees to our UK based team.
“We start 2022 energised and ready for another year of strong performance and growth.”
