A Gloucestershire firm and the small matter of £250 million
How on earth it happened we don’t know, but almost two months ago a Gloucestershire firm revealed it had disposed of a cool £250 million, and yet we all missed it!
Welcome to the second edition of The Raikes Journal of the week.
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Today we take a look at a remarkable story of a county firm and just what it did with £250 million. As you can imagine, we thought that was worth a mention!
On Friday (if all goes to plan) our usual full end of the week edition will lead with running a story about another county business we happen to know about which has been working with the team that made the Gymshark exercise clothing label the multi-million pound success it is today - and which is eyeing considerable growth of its own.
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A Gloucestershire firm and the small matter of £250 million
How on earth it happened we don’t know, but almost two months ago a Gloucestershire firm revealed it had disposed of a cool £250 million, and yet we all missed it!
It’s such an extraordinary story, and yet despite the Gloucestershire company revealing the news some weeks back – that it had disposed of £250 million - the moment looks to have been missed by everyone, until now.
Its boss first made the remarkable confession in March, but it has only come across our radar because the Brockworth-based business has just published its annual financial report for the year ending December 2024 – which includes even more detail.
Tracing exactly where every penny of the money went is difficult to do - it has been so widely distributed - but the firm comes clean in a general way about where most of it has gone, and the impact.
What might come as a shock, is that it has simply given the money away.
“During the year (2024) we were able to give £36.5 million to good causes. This means we have achieved our ambition to give £250 million to good causes since 2014,” said Mark Hews.
Hews is group chief executive officer of Ecclesiastical Insurance, which employs an estimated 1,180-plus staff in the UK, many of those in Gloucestershire.
The business is owned by the Benefact Group, a family of financial services companies that donate their available profits to good causes, which is ultimately owned by the Benefact Trust.
All three organisations are headquartered on Gloucester Business Park, with the unusual business model making Benefact Group the fourth-largest corporate donor to charity in the UK.
“This is a remarkable achievement only made possible by the support of our customers, colleagues, brokers and partners. Thank you to everyone who has helped us to reach this milestone,” said Hews.
“Whether you realise it or not, you are supporting children with cancer, assisting the homeless, aiding those with mental health challenges, helping Ukrainian refugees, providing medical relief in Gaza, helping those suffering from climate change disasters, and so much more.
“In short, you are truly changing lives by doing business with us,” he said.
The incredible generosity was made possible because of a remarkable turnaround in the Ecclesiastical’s fortunes in 2024.
Its UK operations saw underwriting profits rise significantly.
Hews, who is a former director of HSBC Life and chief executive of M&S Life, called the just-published results (for the year ending 31 December 2024) “excellent”. Pre-tax profits reached £82.5 million.
“In general insurance we reported an underwriting profit of £47.6m, up 93.4 per cent on the previous year.
“2024 was an exceptionally low year for claims, with no major losses and more benign weather experience in the UK compared to other territories,” he said.
“This is in stark contrast to 2023 when we suffered our largest ever UK loss with the devastating fire at St Mark’s Church in London.
“As the insurer of many iconic buildings, a major loss or weather event can be a significant driver of our underwriting result.”
Ecclesiastical’s Australian business has reported a small underwriting loss, said he added, but its Canadian operation delivered a “strong” performance.
Overall gross written premiums rose by 41 per cent “thanks to a strong retention across our territories” and “excellent growth” in the UK and Ireland, supported by expansion into new sectors, including leisure and office professions”.
The firm said 97 per cent of its customers said they were satisfied with the service they receive.
For a fourth year running it was awarded the Outstanding Service Quality Marque for claims service by independent research consultancy Gracechurch.
And it was again recognised as a world-class employer by Best Companies, with Benefact Group named among the top 50 large companies in the UK.
Benefact Group describes itself as “an international family of three divisions: insurance, investments, and broker and advisory, with operations in the UK, Ireland, Canada and Australia. It includes over 30 specialist financial businesses including Ecclesiastical Insurance, EdenTree Investment Management, SEIB, Lycetts and Lloyd & White brokers”.
The Benefact Group, formerly named Ecclesiastical Insurance Group, has given its money through various programmes in recent years, including its Movement for Good awards.
It also gives a proportion of its profits to its charitable owner, the Benefact Trust, who help transform lives and communities.
Ecclesiastical is also part of The Raikes’s Journal’s Top 100 Businesses in Gloucestershire series, which follows the fortunes of the county’s biggest firms by turnover and which we write about in our Reports and Deals channel, sponsored by Randall & Payne.