Interview: Ant Middle, Ageas

Becoming the CEO of a top 20 UK insurer as the world tackles a global pandemic, as markets slide into recession and the nation adapts to new ways of working with increased use of technology probably does not sound like ideal timing. But these are the circumstances Ant Middle has had to take in his stride having replaced Andy Watson at Ageas UK in June.

Interviewed remotely he remained upbeat: “I am incredibly proud to have taken on the role of CEO of Ageas in the UK. I am loving it. While it has been unique circumstances through which I have taken on this role, there have been a lot of positives. Certainly, the wave of pride I have felt through the business, it has certainly focused the mind on the things that have been important.”

Maybe the confidence comes from the fact Middle has spent most of his career in general insurance and has experience in most product lines and distribution channels. He started his career in 1990 with Commercial Union and stayed there for 10 years. “I joined a management programme, which was a privilege really – getting to work across so many different functional areas to get that rounded understanding of how insurance businesses work.”

He then specialised in underwriting,
moved into distribution and operations while with the merged CGNU [later Aviva], before moving on to Axa, where he spend another decade and ended up as head of the commercial business. He then returned to Aviva as managing director of strategic partnerships before joining Ageas in 2014. Most recently he held the chief customer officer role prior to taking up his current position.

He admitted Ageas was an insurer he always had his eye on: “Ageas was always a company that really interested me. In some ways, irritated me, if I’m honest.

“Ageas used to get talked of very highly and when you are in competitor organisations you wonder why that is. What is the magic? Having joined I now understand what makes Ageas the organisation it is. It has got such a grounded, pragmatic culture, and an organisational spirit that genuinely just wants to get things done, there is a real action orientation here. But probably the irritation would have been born of the fact that deeply centred within the business is the importance of relationships.”

Bringing broad understanding

So with his “broad and deep understanding of how insurance companies work” and “the genuine understanding that customers play an incredibly important role in insurance businesses” he was proud to accept the role as Watson stepped down after 10 years with the firm to pursue further education and involvement in non-executive roles.

Middle said: “What Andy leaves behind is a real platform for us now to evolve from. Under Andy’s leadership, the business has moved on tremendously. With Andy’s careful guidance, we are now a much stronger and simpler business as well.”

Prior to Watson stepping down the insurer had also seen Chris Dobson [director of distribution] retire in 2019 but Middle isn’t worried the firm is missing out on their experience: “There is a quite happy mix of longstanding people, who certainly know the organisation, know the culture and everything that we want to preserve and develop, and we have been really pleased to bring in some exceptional talent into the organisation in recent times as well.”

Many insurers are currently looking at restructuring with Covid-19 hitting hard but Ageas has already been through this process. Its 2019 results saw the firm rack up €17m (£14.2m) in expenses from restructuring, which saw offices in Stoke and Port Solent close and 430 redundancies after customer demand for buying over the phones dropped. 

Middle explained: “We, like many businesses across the insurance sector and broader, are continually having to reshape, evolve, respond to the way that customers want to interact with us. They are tough choices to make. They are never taken lightly. But you must make sure that you deal with the consequences of that choice in the best possible way.

“Through all the work we have done over the last five, six or seven years, we have now put ourselves in a stronger position. As we look ahead, I have no doubt that there are going to be lots of exciting opportunities. We want to make sure that we are actively making the right choices for the long-term health and success of this business. That is something we have always done and that is something that I will intend to continue to do.”

Adapting to a changing market

This change in customer behaviours has also led Ageas to address its digital strategy. “One of those big areas that we are focused on is our digital agenda,” Middle explained. “We are adapting to an agile way of working within the business. We have completely rebuilt and relaunched our customer portal. We are relaunching, having rewritten, all of our consumer-facing websites. We are embarking on some exciting digital activity as well and beginning to think about how we might evolve what we do right the way through the customer journey.”

And although it pulled the plug on its in-house insurtech venture Back Me Up Middle says it is still “actively” looking at what insurtechs can bring: “We are still really happy that we tried what we did with Back Me Up. You have got to try some things and learn the lessons from them. Just because we took the lessons and decided not to proceed with Back Me Up, it has not really dampened our spirit.

“That is an area that we want to remain incredibly close to. We have done some really good work partnering with more mature insurtechs. For example, our partnership with Tractable has been a real success that has gone from a pilot to becoming a fundamental part of the way we operate in the claims area. We are also heavily involved in work in machine learning and automation. We see the potential of the agility that partnering in that area brings.”

And that is not the only area Middle hopes to expand on: “We have got a real heritage, in terms of motor insurance. That will remain, at the heart of our business and we want to get stronger. But as well we have ambitions to broaden our portfolio. So, making sure that we expand our household footprint. We have got ambition to continue the evolution of our commercial business as well.”

Middle said the focus for this growth would be organic but added: “If opportunities come up, we will always look at them. But our focus will be on the organic development of the business in the round.”

Despite a decision to part ways with John Lewis on travel insurance and the expectation that Ageas’ decade long home and motor insurance relationship with Tesco Underwriting is ending this year, with the latter buying out the insurer, Middle confirms the insurer will also continue to focus on its affinity deals and partnerships highlighting its five-year deal with the Post Office for home insurance.

Middle explained: “[Affinity] is an area that we still have as a strong plank of our distribution. Partnerships will continue to be an area that we leave open to us in terms of opportunities, but those choices have to be underpinned with, in alignment with the relationships that we build and a commercial outlook that makes a lot of sense. If it is not making sense for all parties, then we will just have very straight, honest conversations about that and make the right choices.”

A growing ambition

Ageas has hovered outside Post Top 10 UK Insurers for some years, in 2019 making number 12 and although Middle admitted to having ambitions to grow he wouldn’t be drawn on if or when he’d like to break into the upper echelons: “Scale is important, but we are primarily focused on making our business better. If because of us doing all the things that we want to, evolving the business in the way that we want to, we can grow the business and improve our ranking, then that will be nice. But it will be a consequence of us having taken the right steps to evolve our business and us having made the right choices.”

One ranking he is keen to improve on though is Post Best Insurance Employer where the insurer scored highly for senior management and diversity in 2020.

“Our people and making sure that we remain focused on this being a great place to work is an incredibly important priority for us,” he noted. “We have a real genuine wave of pride running through the organisation. In terms of the way that our people have been able to adapt, support each other, and really importantly support our customers and our brokers through the last few months, and keep our service level, in particular, strong throughout this whole period, that only comes if you have got motivated and committed people. This is one of the obvious real strengths of this business.”

Facing the challenges

Middle’s positivity continues to shine through but that is not to say he is blind to the challenges the insurer, and market as a whole are up against. 

“We are facing into a recession. That will bring its challenges. We are coming out of, and who knows how long it will last, a pandemic that is throwing up all sorts of challenges to us as an industry and to us as a business. Some of them we won’t have seen yet. Because the pandemic is rapidly evolving and there are new things, new issues being thrown up every day,” he said.

He added: “None of the underlying challenges of the market go away. There is and will continue to be inflationary pressure on the business, particularly in motor. But operationally, we need to be continually evolving and making sure that we continue to adapt our business. The list could go on. Not least the reputation of the industry as a whole, given everything that has gone on. There is a still a long way to run this year and anything can happen.

“But my position as I sit here today, is that with all of that known, I am confident we have got a very solid business and a position for the business that we can take forward positively. We will have to be decisive, we will have to make good choices, but I am optimistic about the future. That we can create a genuinely sustainable success story for Ageas.”

Message to brokers

For him one area that will keep the business strong is the fact the insurer works closely with brokers. He explained: “Relationships with [them] are fundamental to our business, because 85% of our business is conducted through brokers and intermediaries more broadly. That has always been an important trait of Ageas in the UK. It is a case of building from that position of strength and aspiring to make the business even stronger, to underpin the strength of those relationships.

“[Brokers] are going to be of critical importance to the future success of our business and more broadly the ambition I have which is to create a genuine and sustainable success story for Ageas in the UK.”

Despite Covid, the recession and the reputational issues facing the market currently it seems nothing can knock Middle’s optimism. It’s been said we are all the same storm but in different boats and Middle concludes that he is very happy with the boat he is in: “I am optimistic about the future. I know how good we are and can be. So, I am very much looking forward to adapting to all of the challenges but taking the business forward very positively.”