The sale of NI insurance firm Hughes to a larger UK company could potentially lead to lower costs and a greater range of products, according to a financial commentator.
Hughes is set to be bought by Markerstudy Group, which manages insurance businesses including Carole Nash, Budget, Marmalade insurance and Purely Pets.
Markerstudy said the purchase is proof of its commitment to Northern Ireland.
Hughes Insurance was owned by US firm Liberty Insurance from 2016 to 2023, when it was sold to Generali Group along with the rest of Liberty’s personal and small commercial operations in western Europe.
In response to the sale of Hughes to Markerstudy, which still has to be approved by the regulator, finance commentator Paul Gosling said: “I would hope that becoming a member of a larger group would enable it to benefit from greater scale and economies, bringing down costs and possibly extending the range of products.”
Lesley Hughes, who founded the business in 1977
Markerstudy group’s companies work across a range of different sectors of insurance, including motor, pet and business.
The group’s brands manage over eight million customers and around 7,000 people are employed by the company.
Hughes Insurance was founded in 1977 by Lesley Hughes and is one of the largest insurance firms in the province, with 85,000 customers.
Its most recent accounts, for the year ending December 31 2022, showed a pre-tax profit of £2.5m and a turnover of £13.7m.
They also said that the company had 246 employees on average per month.
Meanwhile, Hughes Insurance’s former headquarters in Newtownards has been sold after being put on the market in last December.
Strangford House on the Jubilee Road is now listed as sold by agents Osborne King.
The site includes two interconnected buildings of around 17,000 sq ft and 18,500 sq ft, with a total of 185 car park spaces.
According to a selling brochure from Osborne King, the offices have an annual rates bill of around £158,500.
It was initially listed at £3m, but just under three months later it was put back on the market for £2.5m.
The company had moved to a fully remote working model in 2021 following the shift to homeworking triggered by Covid.
Remote employees were to receive a £566 gross annual payment to cover any related remote working expenses.
At the time, Hughes said a staff survey showed that 93% did not want to return to traditional working.
In March of this year, a spokesperson said Hughes’ executive team was “exploring alternative, more accessible commercial premises that better meet the needs of the business”.