Be Wiser Insurance, one of the UK’s largest privately owned personal lines insurance brokers, has just released details of its annual audited accounts for the year ended 31st May 2014 – and it’s been a good year.
Be Wiser’s finance director Andrew Dunkerley said the company was pleased to have achieved excellent increases in turnover and profit before tax, particularly as it had invested heavily in staff and training during the previous two years, with an estimated profit and loss cost of £2 million being incurred during this period.
The highlights were:
- Turnover increase of 20% (£25.9 million from £21.6 million in the previous year)
- Profit before tax of £2.2 million v £2.0 million
- Policy numbers increased to 175,000 from 142,000 (23% increase)
- Shareholders funds increased by 35% to £1.66 million
Dunkerley said that the company expected to see a return from this investment during the new and subsequent financial years.
He said that the company had increased its shareholder funds to £1.66 million so that it had sufficient capital for further increased growth in the new financial year and beyond.
Be Wiser, which commenced trading seven years ago, has matured into one of the UK’s largest personal lines insurance brokers and currently employs 540 staff in offices based in Andover, Hampshire.
It now sees itself continuing to grow within the large and competitive marketplace that it operates within, and will continue to build on the strong professional relationships that it has with all of its key suppliers.
Dunkerley added that the company is extremely proud of the training and employment opportunities that it provides to all staff members. He was keen to stress that its growth was secured by having professionally qualified staff in all areas of the business.
He concluded, “Be Wiser is fortunate to have a highly experienced and skilled board of directors, all of who have helped develop the company over a short period of time to feature in the top ten personal lines insurance brokers in the UK. The hard work and dedication of our directors and staff are the bedrock of our growth and we will continue to invest heavily in training and associated staff costs to maintain our growth.”
The company is currently recruiting for an additional 90 employees during the course of the next five months – and looking for school and college leavers (with GCSE and/or A Level qualifications) together with a third year of its graduate recruitment programme.