Briefing: Could Allianz explore direct business again?

In the advert, posted on LinkedIn last week, it says the company is “creating a new sales and distribution team” to sell the inspection services direct to customers.

It continued: “This is an additional distribution channel to complement our already well-established broker offering. Our starting point is to appoint a manager who has strong technical knowledge and experience of the UK inspection market, along with extensive sales and leadership experience and skills.”

Jonathan Oldfield, Allianz’s head of engineering construction & power, customer & distribution told Post: “Allianz Engineering, Construction & Power is looking at enhancing the distribution of its inspection service by making it available to customers who currently choose to purchase this service directly.

“This additional distribution channel will complement our well-established broker offering. We are recruiting people to lead this direct strategy, so it is still early days but we are very excited about this development, which will bring our inspection expertise to more customers.”

This looks more like an expansion into this channel, as Allianz already has direct inspection customers, and will sit alongside the team who operate with brokers, as the advert would suggest.

Why inspection?

This would appear to be the right part of the company to invest in more direct business. Inspection has long been a feather in Allianz’s cap, with strong loyalty scores across the board. If you were to build on that to bring in your own direct customers without the need to pay out broker commissions and other potential admin fees, it would be a no-brainer.

But, could it be something Allianz explores elsewhere?

Allianz’s commercial business is no slacker when it comes to loyalty scores, but it does slightly fall behind the inspection business. The engineering business has been seen as a ‘loyalty leader’ for each of the years between 2016 and 2020. However, the commercial business was listed as ‘above market’ for 2019. By no means a bad score, but slightly less consistent than the engineering business.

Back in January 2022, when Allianz brought the broker and engineering business together, chief distribution and regions officer Nick Hobbs commented that utilising the engineering customer service expertise in the engineering business would strengthen the broker business.

He said: “Bringing together the two parts of the business with different expertise and utilising their strengths to help each other, that is a great combination and has huge potential for further success.”

Start as you mean to go on?

Whether this move to more direct sales in the inspection business will ripple throughout the business remains to be seen. Allianz itself declined to comment.

If it were to happen, this would of course not be the first time Allianz Insurance has had a direct business in the UK.

Back in 2016, Allianz announced it was exiting the UK direct business for home and motor, back when it had products in personal lines, before the acquisition of LV and later the splitting of the business into Allianz Personal and Allianz Commercial.

At the time, this exit was welcomed by brokers as it was an “overcrowded market”.

But as that was for a personal lines product, and any return direct business would be in commercial lines, could it be an option for the insurer?