Hiscox praise for quality of county’s workforce

Next month, Hiscox is due to officially launch its base at Peasholme Green in York, which will be its largest office outside London. Over time, it’s hoped the new site will employ around 500 staff.

Hiscox’s chief executive Bronek Masojada, told The Yorkshire Post: “We liked the quality of the workforce in York, we like the cost versus London, and we liked the connectivity from York to London. It wasn’t quite as crowded an employment market as Leeds.”

Mr Masojada said he hoped to develop a stable, loyal workforce in York that could build up customer understanding, and research indicated that customers trusted the Yorkshire accent. He said Hiscox had considered two sites for its York operations – one based in the city, and another on an office park outside the centre.

He added: “We liked the city centre. We think it’s a more vibrant environment than an office park.”

Mr Masojada also highlighted the fact that the city centre site was well served by public transport, and central for its customer base.

Yesterday, Hiscox also revealed that a drop in the number of natural disasters helped boost its business in the first nine months of the year.

The London-listed firm said its gross written premiums jumped 12.9 per cent to £1.5bn due to fewer storms, floods and hurricanes around the world.

The Bermuda-based firm, which ranges from international commercial underwriting to home insurance, also saw a strong performance from its US market and its Lloyds of London business.

It said gross written premiums leapt 16.9 per cent to £453.4m at Lloyds of London, helped by “healthy” rates in casualty, small property and specialty car insurance.

However, it added that premium rates in upstream energy and US large property continue to decline.

Its retail insurance arm, which insures more than 60,000 households in the UK, saw gross written premiums in the UK and Ireland lift 3.9 per cent to £336.5m, driven by commercial and high net worth household business across all regions.

The group said it will continue to look for bolt-on acquisitions in this area. Last year it bought festival and meetings insurance firm Event Assured, while in August it acquired classic car insurer RH Classics, both for undisclosed sums.

However, the group said rates at its UK and US retail businesses remained broadly flat, while in Europe it was seeing single-digit increases across its personal and commercial lines.

Mr Masojada said: “Our strategy is working. A long-term investment in the brand has helped us attract new business and talent and we see plenty of opportunities for growth.”

In a statement, Hiscox said: “A combination of good underwriting and the wind season ending without incident has resulted in another benign period for Hiscox.

“Although considerable uncertainty exists around the explosion in the Port of Tianjin, (in China) based on early estimates, the group expects net claims of $10m. For the Californian wildfires in September and the more recent South Carolina floods, the group had limited exposure. Hiscox UK and Europe has reserved net €5m for the October floods in the south of France.”

Shore Capital analyst Eamonn Flanagan added: “This trading update again highlights the virtues of Hiscox’s diversification strategy over the past years.

“The group remains one of the quality plays in the sector in our view.”