The pandemic has been no break on growth at Howden Employee Benefits and Wellbeing – turnover has virtually tripled since December 2019, when it stood at around £20m. Global practice head of employee benefits Glenn Thomas says the expansion of the business takes it into the top five benefits firms in the UK for revenue for health, benefits and protection, if one excludes actuarial and defined benefit consulting.
The firm’s strategy has been based around acquiring the right components to break into new markets, and then expanding through organic and acquisition once there.
Howden’s UK operation’s big jump in turnover has in part been driven by the acquisition of Aston Lark, which itself has been a big consolidator, celebrating its 50th acquisition in May this year.
Thomas joined the firm in March 2018, and has also been charged with heading up the UK and Ireland health and benefits division as CEO, as well as his global role. This includes overseeing Aston Lark as well as the A-Plan, Assured Futures consumer businesses. The latest piece in the UK jigsaw is the acquisition of SPF Private Clients which extends its offering to the mortgage broking and wealth management market while enhancing its existing general insurance offering. SPF will continue as a stand-alone entity within the group under CEO, Mark Harris.
Thomas says: “Taking these businesses together, excluding SPF, we have tripled our income since the end of December 2019. Back than our revenue stood at £20m, up from £1.5m in 2018. We now have 470 employees in the UK, compared to under 200, two years ago. This has been a busy period.
“Most has come through acquisitions but we have had good organic growth too. The pandemic meant that for a while organic growth was challenged, although on the general insurance side it was very strong, in part because markets hardened. But last year we have definitely seen strong organic growth returning in employee benefits.
Thomas says that the reasons for this were multiple.
“In the first year of Covid, discretionary spend was cut altogether. HR departments were focusing on Covid and were reluctant to start new initiatives,” he says. “The expat market was also virtually non-existent because people were not travelling.”
But over this period Howden has been bolstering its international reach, adding nine more countries in the last two years, taking its presence to 32 territories in employee benefits and 45 at a group level.
Thomas says: “We believe this gives us a presence in more countries than any other consultancy outside the big three.”
He cites Italy as a good example of its strategy. “We bought Andrea Scagliarini, which included a small but very good employee benefits business. Since then, in March 2022 we acquired Assiteca, which was number three in Italy. This strategy took us from nowhere to number three in Italy very quickly.”
In June this year, Howden capped off its Italian foray with the appointment of high profile benefits figure Cesare Lai as head of employee benefits and wellbeing. Lai has held senior roles at AIG, Mercer, WTW and most recently as CEO of Generali Welion.
Thomas says there is still a substantial amount of private equity money chasing the employee benefit sector both in the UK and around the world.
“The multiples have gone to high levels, and we have seen some of the UK- or US-only brokers buying in Europe too.”
This focus on overseas markets doesn’t mean it’s all over for UK expansion. Thomas says the firm is still interested in acquisitions in the UK “if it is the right fit from a culture point of view”
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