How one insurer is shaking off its “sleeping giant” mantle

In his four years at HDI Global, director of distribution & marketing in the UK & Ireland, Oliver Davies (pictured) has seen the industrial insurer accelerate its growth trajectory and begin to shake off its “sleeping giant” mantle. The UK and Ireland business has grown from around €300 million to €1.5 billion GWP, and the team has expanded from 250 to about 400 colleagues since 2019.

Being part of this “exponential growth story” has been a tremendously positive experience, he said, and all eyes are now fixed firmly on the future with the appointment of Stephanie Ogden as CEO for HDI Global in the UK & Ireland. Speaking with Insurance Business, he noted the growing recognition from brokers not just of the size and scale of the business, but also its longstanding commitment to its distribution partners.

The next stage of HDI’s growth journey

It’s an exciting time to be at HDI, he said, as the business looks to embark on the next stage of its ambitious growth strategy, underpinned by a fundamental change in its approach – from a pioneering insurer to a partner in transformation. It’s a natural evolution for the business, which was created in 1903 as a mutual by the steel and coal industry in Germany – a mutual still exists and owns HDI today.

“We’re in a really unique position as a business in that we’re serving our customers who are ultimately our shareholders,” he said. “And so, we’re focused on being very client-orientated in our approach, with all the longevity that comes with that… Our client base are our shareholders so it’s a very cyclical environment at HDI.  If we do well, our clients do well, and vice versa, and it’s important that we keep that cycle going.

“So, from a proposition perspective, a lot of what we’re trying to do by becoming a partner in transformation is come up with ways of dealing with risks that previously weren’t part of the agenda. That includes the move to net-zero by businesses, which is an area where we’ve been doing a lot of work as a traditional industrially focused insurer with a lot of manufacturing clients.”

Finding innovative ways to support clients

The focus now is on crafting new propositions that can support the insurer’s client base, he said, and that can vary from innovations around safe battery storage, new greener alternatives to PFAS, or the establishment of captives – of which HDI now has 160 globally.

“It’s one thing to take a conventional client which just requires a standard policy and some risk transfer but the world has changed,” he said. “It’s not 1990, and we’re operating in a very complex risk environment. Clients want to do something different; they want some skin in the game, and they want to trial some different things, but how do they do that? And that’s where we’re able to step in.”

Particularly in the context of the polycrisis environment facing clients today, it’s no surprise to Davies or his team that this partner in transformation approach is resonating strongly across the market.

“It comes down to the fact that we really understand the risks they’re facing,” he said. “I think a lot of the time clients will come to you and if you don’t delve into the detail of what their issues are, then you’re just solving that immediate problem. One of the things we are really conscious of is that we don’t want to be that market. We want to be the one that’s looking to be significant for our clients over a very long period of time. As an example, we write around 5,100 international programmes across HDI Global so we have a keen eye on the emerging risk landscape.

“Overall we’re about the longevity of those relationships. We’ll invest in solutions that are a little bit different, a little bit bespoke because we recognise that innovation is what’s required to support our clients for the next five years, the next 10 years – not just through to the next renewal.”