Commenting on Gallagher’s UK broking and underwriting results for Q1 2023 Simon Matson, EMEA CEO said: “Our performance in the first quarter of 2023 was excellent with our Specialty broking division delivering 17% organic growth and our UK & Ireland Retail division achieving 7% based on existing operations as at 1 January. This strong level of growth was driven by a mixture of new client wins and existing client retention.
“The growth in Specialty was exceptional and was contributed to by all the teams with every area achieving year-on-year growth compared to this time last year, and with particular standout performances in our aerospace and energy operations.
“Retail, operating from our extensive branch network across the UK and Ireland, has continued to grow its client base and alongside the organic growth highlighted, we have made a number of acquisitions in the last three months. This includes First Ireland, which building on our existing operations has made us one of the biggest brokers in Ireland, plus FE Protect, a further education specialist broker based in Liverpool, which is highly complementary to our existing team in this sector.
“Pen Underwriting has also welcomed a new team having acquired specialist marine experts Tay River Holdings. We had identified the specialty marine market as a core area of capability that we wanted to add to Pen’s existing breadth of specialisms so we are delighted to welcome them to the business as it gives us a strong platform for further growth into a new sector. During the quarter we have also launched a new intellectual property practice within the division which will support businesses with a comprehensive portfolio of IP risk solutions.
“We continue to grow our team ensuring our clients have access to the very best people in the market and so far in 2023 we welcomed over 300 new colleagues to our UK operations. I am very proud of the achievements of the team in the UK and our performance in the first quarterly of 2023 sets us up for another strong year.”
