British Insurance Awards 2019: Insurance Broker of the Year - Aston Lark

Winner: Aston Lark

The 2019 award for Insurance Broker of the Year was handed to Aston Lark, a recent top-to-bottom consolidation of two major broking businesses to form one strong brand that has successfully addressed its products, staff, and customers.

Delivering full integration of merged and acquired businesses is no mean feat yet this broker has committed to building one unified group with strong embedded culture and values to provide clients with local expertise across the UK.

Retaining staff during a merger can be tricky but Aston Lark already operates as a seamless joined-up business, despite being two separate entities just nine months ago.

With a core brand purpose entitled ‘Care’, the company has heavily engaged in employee engagement and communication, and consequently experienced excellent staff retention in its completed acquisitions.

High staff satisfaction scores that increase year-on-year are a testament to a culture that promotes and encourages professional development.  

An emphasis on real organic growth means new acquisitions are presented with full access to existing infrastructure, products, staff benefits, insurer facilities and group-wide support.

“Clear target market and comprehensive plan to achieve improved outcomes,” stated one judge.

Winning the Insurance Broker of the Year award is amazing. It’s been an incredible year so far, securing our new investment partner in Goldman Sachs and acquiring some fantastic businesses such as Jobson James, Highworth and Robertson Low in Dublin. Huge thanks to our wonderful staff for making all this happen.

Peter Blanc, CEO of Aston Lark