The Hollard Insurance Company Pty Ltd (ABN 78 090 584 473) (Hollard) announced today that it has agreed to purchase 100% of Firma Insurance Services Pty Ltd (ABN 40 101 982 110) (Firma).
Firma is a specialist taxi insurance agency offering comprehensive insurance cover for taxis.
It also arranges CTP Green Slips.
Firma has established itself as a respected player since entering the taxi insurance market in 2003.
Hollard is an APRA-approved Australian general insurer focused on developing specialist insurance businesses. Its approach includes establishing start-up underwriting agencies and purchasing existing operations.
Richard Enthoven, Managing Director of Hollard, explained his company’s entrance into the taxi insurance market and the purchase of Firma. “We have considerable taxi experience overseas and are familiar with the profit drivers. We believe the medium term prospects for taxi insurance are very good, and have been looking for the right opportunity to enter the market. Firma, with its strong customer base and experienced management, gives us an excellent platform to grow our presence”.
Jehan Sammy, Firma’s Operations Manager, added, “We are excited that Hollard has decided to back us. We view this as a real testament to the success we’ve had in building the business to date, and also in the direction we’re headed. Hollard is linked to some of the most successful underwriting agencies in Australia and internationally. With Hollard we have the backing of a local insurer who is also a partner, and we are confident this will directly translate to a superior offering for our clients”.
Hollard will be the insurer of record for all comprehensive policies issued by Firma from 1 November 2007.
For further information please contact:
Mark Fleiser – Senior Account Manager (Hollard) – 02 9253 6606
Jehan Sammy - Operations Manager (Firma) - 02 9597 2333
8 July 2007
The country’s leading outboard and PWC distributor Yamaha Motor Australia announces a new insurance product that is only available through its national dealer network. The new product called Yamaha Marine Insurance is being launched at this year's Melbourne and Sydney Boat Shows and is a first for the Australian and world insurance market.
Yamaha Motor’s GM Steven Cotterell says, “This is a world first for Yamaha and it means we can add the final piece of the jigsaw to provide a one-stop shop for marine product, services, finance and now insurance which will help us to continue to lead the market place.”Yamaha Marine Insurance, the ultimate pleasure craft cover is designed for all boats with Yamaha marine products and including Waverunner. It is only available through authorised Yamaha dealers and Yamaha Finance Australia.
Yamaha Marine Insurance dealer benefits
Yamaha factory backed; Exclusive to Yamaha participating dealers; Only genuine Yamaha parts used for all repairs; Authorised Dealers Priority claims approval up to $2,000; Repair work referred to authorised participating Yamaha dealers; Gap cover available for a nominal extra fee including extras cover; $10 million legal liability cover on Waverunners; Full replacement of boat and Waverunner in first 12 months of registration; New for old on mechanical and electrical components of motors regardless of age; Encourages use of DataDot that provides the marine industry a much needed security data base; DataDot deters theft and increases the chances of recovery as it provides an audit trail for police and insurance companies; Insurance premium savings and tangible policy benefits passed on to clients.
Yamaha Marine Insurance owner benefitsYamaha
Marine Insurance is the ultimate in pleasure craft cover at very competitive premiums and it provides real “peace of mind” for owners. Only genuine Yamaha parts are used for repairs, dealers have priority claims approval up to $2,000 to get the customer back on the water sooner and there is nil theft excess when Data Dot DNA is applied to boat, outboard motor, trailer and PWC.
Factory badged insurance product; Pay by the month option; Gap cover available; Agreed value on Hull, motor, trailer and equipment and accessories; Lost keys cover up to $500; Death cover $30,000; Convenient YMI Membership ID card.
Yamaha Marine Insurance is administered by Nautilus Marine Insurance Agency (AFSL 227 186) and underwritten by The Hollard Company Pty Ltd (AFSL 241 436).
Yamaha Marine Insurance will be rolled out to all Yamaha Dealers around Australia throughout the months of July and August. Part of the roll out program will be comprehensive training of all sales staff in this exiting new product
This article originally appeared on www.sundaytimes.co.za
Hollard sets the standard for best of both worlds, writes Richard Stovin-Bradford.
The theory that a pleasant working environment can enhance staff wellbeing and result in greater productivity is proven by 1200 staff at Hollard’s state-of-the-art headquarters in Johannesburg.
Hollard, the country’s largest privately-owned insurance company, provides life and short-term insurance to more than six million policyholders in South Africa and internationally.
For ebullient Hollard chief executive Paolo Cavalieri, the vast expanses of glass at the open-plan offices encircling Villa Arcadia (a Herbert Baker mansion) symbolise openness and transparency.
“You can always see what’s going on and who’s meeting who. The building makes things happen naturally — its design and the energy it breeds is a stroke of luck. The first day I walked in here, I thought to myself: wow, it’s pumping.”
The impression of disarming openness is reinforced as one sits with Cavalieri shooting the breeze in the bustling Hollard café which, he says with appropriately Italianate gestures, has the best coffee in town. The blend was chosen after exhaustive tasting.
The aroma is magic, and the vibe electric. The café is abuzz with “Hollardites” sitting in brightly coloured armchairs, talking shop over their cappuccinos.
Old-fashioned face-to-face contact has clearly not been replaced by the internal telephones or e-mail.
Cavalieri enjoys good food — his parents Elsa and Cesare hail from Parma and Ferrara/Bologna respectively — and he expects his staff to do the same, saying: “The food here is good — we have one caterer who handles everything. You pay, but it’s subsidised.”
When not sitting at their desks or meeting clients, Hollardites mix their work with table football, play table tennis, hone their mountaineering skills on a climbing wall, indulge in retail therapy at the Hollard shop — or just chill out at the café.
Everything happens in the central atrium, where staff can see and be seen. It safely accommodates 1000 people if Cavalieri and his team want to speak to staff.
The Hollard shop, which sells more branded merchandise to staff than is given to clients, was doing a brisk trade. There is even an online mall for Hollardites that takes advantage of bulk-buying discounts.
As befits a family-owned business where family values are key, Cavalieri says that on Father’s Day and Mother’s Day staff are encouraged to take their folks out for a meal — at Hollard’s expense.
But it’s not all play and no work. Cavalieri said: “We take what we do seriously, but we don’t take ourselves seriously.”
Human resources head Ivan Mzimela said: “We are very hands- on people and we must be doing something right because we won all the short-term insurance awards at the recent Safsia (South African Financial Services Intermediaries Association) awards.”
For those who enjoy Hollard cuisine too much, Cavalieri says there is a fully equipped gym where “you can work off the croissants”.
He is a former national rowing champion and was manager and coach of the SA team at the Barcelona Olympic games in 1992. Naturally, Hollard sponsors the SA rowing team.
South African oarsmen Donovan Cech and Ramón Di Clemente designed the gym which has a full- time biokineticist, a masseuse and a spinning instructor. Hollard also has a wellness centre with a nurse and doctor, where staff can get anything from flu jabs to counselling on family issues.
“We look after our crew,” he said, referring both to the rowing team and his staff. “And we chose real characters to run the gym.”
As two staffers spin the handles furiously in a game of table football Cavalieri’s sporting streak, honed on the race track and the water, resurfaces: “The competitive angle is important, but winning is not the most important thing.”
There is a pause. The mischievous look in his eyes beats his tongue to it as he confirms: “But it is, really.”
As is the case at FirstRand’s investment banking core, Rand Merchant Bank, there is no oppressive culture of rules and regulations. RMB’s rule book is a sizeable cahier full of empty pages. Hollard is remarkably similar.
Cavalieri said: “We don’t have any rules about who can and can’t play, or when — it’s all about how you manage your time.”
Mzimela said: “Paolo is right, we don’t actually sit down and write rules. “Yes, we have employment policies like everyone else, and we make sure staff members realise it’s a fun place to work— but that it’s also a work environment. It’s a question of balance.”
The environment does much to attract new staff, as does its No 5 ranking in the 2006 Deloitte/ Financial Mail “Best Company to Work For” survey.
But Mzimela said Hollard’s unorthodox approach to hiring can catch people unawares: “When we hired a new IT director recently, we spent more time quizzing her on her interests and on her potential cultural fit than on her skills. She was a bit surprised.”
If he spots an outstanding candidate during interviews, he usually takes them straight to meet Cavalieri, who invariably makes himself available — his door is always open.
Cavalieri said: “We try to create an environment where people can be themselves. We don’t have an environment here where you go home and be a cross-dresser — you can be [one] here too.
“The two biggest things are to be yourself and to be transparent. We do give it a lot of importance and, through Ivan and his team and the marketing team, we are serious about our culture.”
The culture extends to the car park, where there are no allocated spaces for the bosses.
Motor racing enthusiast Cavalieri — he was a BMW factory team driver and an Alfa Romeo factory support driver in the ’80s — said: “I start my day with a handbrake turn in the car park.
“It gives me a big [thrill] and by doing a handbrake turn I’ve created a parking bay that wasn’t there before.”
Hollard sponsors — and has business partners involved in — motor racing.
In fact, Cavalieri has devised a Villa Arcadia hill-climb speed-trial, running from the entry boom to the front door — albeit not during the working week.
A well-known company routinely rated as having good staff conditions is Google, the global Internet firm. One of the top 10 reasons to work at Google is that work and play are not mutually exclusive.
Google staff have on-site doctors and dentists, massage and yoga facilities, “plenty of snacks”, and they can even take their dogs to work — or have their laundry done. Hollardites can have their dry cleaning done at work, and there are in-house cobblers and tailors for the snappy dressers — or even the cross-dressers.
You would think staff would never want to leave. But sometimes they choose to, and sometimes they are asked to leave.
But when people do leave, Mzimela and his team always conduct an exit interview. He said: “Nine times out of 10, people say they love the company.”
Enough said.
This article orginally appeared on www.moneyweb.co.za.
Wireless broadband provider iBurst is offering its subscribers peace of mind by launching three insurance options covering their hardware and contracts. The three options within the newly-launched iB Sure product are credit life, short term and combined insurance, and are available from 1 March 2007. iB Sure is underwritten by Hollard Insurance and Hollard Life, otherwise known as Hollard, and both are licensed Financial Service Providers.
“Every 53 seconds in South Africa a laptop is believed to be stolen, resulting in our economy being crippled due to a loss of productivity. While technological advances have made it possible for individuals to be mobile, conversely the security risks facing the mobile workforce leaves us with something to be concerned about. ” said Thami Mtshali, iBurst CEO.
The credit life option insures the subscriber’s contract against death, disability and retrenchment. The short term insurance option covers subscribers’ modems against theft and damage.
As the name suggests, combined insurance offers both credit life and short term insurance for all-round cover. According to Mr Mtshali, “Good planning in the form of appropriate insurance cover for highly mobile hardware, in particular, will ensure peace of mind for iBurst subscribers."
Structured as cost-effectively as possible, credit life insurance is available for a monthly premium of R27.50. The short term plan is priced at a low R22.50 while the combined option costs R40.00.iBurst subscribers are invited to log onto www.iburst.co.za where they will be able to register for the insurance option best suited to their needs and access important information regarding the insurance packages.
Domestic workers, teachers and golf caddies could become entrepreneurs or supplement their income by selling airtime, funeral plans and prepaid electricity vouchers via their cellphones.
There are some 4 000 agents across the country’s townships who currently do this. The technology belongs to SharedPhone that re-programmes SIM cards to allow menu driven products or services.
Hollard insurance and SharedPhone have teamed up to offer funeral policies using the same technology.
Potential agents pay R599 for a starter kit that includes ten funeral starter packs at R20 each, R1 200 free airtime to establish their contacts, a training DVD, a set of professionally done signs to advertise their business, a business plan and business cards.
Kevin Jakes, Hollard’s account manager on the project, says the target is to grow the existing 4 000 airtime agents tenfold with the insurance product. “This is a great platform to offer value products into the low-end market in line with the Financial Services Charter and exposes previously uninsured people to insurance products,” says Jakes. Without being specific, Jakes added that other products would be introduced to the platform.
After the sale of each insurance starter pack, the agent sends the new client’s details to Hollard which sends them a policy number immediately. There is a 30-day cooling off period and the agent will regain their starter fee after the client has paid more than two premiums. Thereafter the agent receives a ten percent commission on the premium.
The policy starter packs include a registration card and FAIS compliant policy documents. Any advice related queries are referred to Hollard by the agent in order to comply with FAIS legislation.
Five thousand Rand worth of funeral cover costs R18 rand a month for individuals and R25 a month for families.
Discovery Life has also announced its intention to provide funeral cover via cellphones in a partnership with Vodacom.
THE NAUTILUS Marine Insurance Agency based in the Victorian beachside suburb of Brighton has taken on sponsorship of a strong local entrant in the Sydney-Hobart Yacht race this Christmas.
The Royal Brighton Yacht Club’s 13 metre off-shore vessel will be known as Nautilus Marine-Rush when it lines up in Sydney Harbor on Boxing Day for its second attempt at winning the nation’s most prestigious yachting event.
The sponsorship of the yacht will help boost the profile of Nautilus Marine among its target audience of recreational boat owners and operators of commercial pleasure craft.
Nautilus Marine, which is fully backed and underwritten by Hollard Insurance Company, has been built into a national insurer with state managers and offices in Victoria, NSW, Queensland and WA in less than two years.
It is run by Ian Frith, the former managing director and founder of insurance brokers I.C. Frith & Associates which he sold in the middle of last year to take over as Nautilus Marine CEO and major shareholder.
Mr Frith, however, remains chairman of I.C.Frith & Associates.
The new business began with a staff of 3 highly skilled professionals and within a year it had expanded to 13 staff.
Mr Frith said the business was committed to the broker market and could insure virtually any pleasure craft or charter boat risk in Australia.
Marketing manager Mark Crockford said Nautilus Marine was supporting the Nautilus Marine Rush to give this top local boat and its dedicated club sailors an opportunity to compete head-to-head against the international and leading national fifty footers doing the race.
Nautilus Marine Rush is skippered by 39-year-old John Paterson, a project engineer living in nearby Sandringham and crewed by experienced but non-professional sailors who have been sailing together for the past 5 seasons.
As part of Nautilus Marine’s sponsorship the radio stations 3AW in Melbourne and 2UE in Sydney will cross to the Nautilus Marine-rush each morning during the race for live reports from the crew.