One Sure buys Unicom from Tradewise liquidators

The business was previously owned by managing general agent Tradewise Insurance Services which, as revealed by Insurance Age, went into administration in January.

This had followed confirmation in December 2021 that the motor MGA would stop binding new business or renewals from January 2022 after being unable to renew its reinsurance programme with Berkshire Hathaway.

Chris Lear, managing director of One Sure, confirmed the takeover noting that most of Unicom’s capacity used to be provided by Tradewise.

“As One Sure is already one of the UK’s largest writers of motor trade insurance, we already have a ready-made home for this business within our existing partnerships with our select capacity providers,” he told Insurance Age.

“By becoming part of the One Sure family, Unicom will now be able to offer its customers even better value and an enhanced customer service experience.”

Premium

Unicom wrote £7.5m of gross written premium last year and after the acquisition One Sure – across all its brands of One Sure, Staveley Head, Compare HGV and Unicom – will write approximately £50m of GWP this year.

Lear highlighted that Unicom employs 18 staff and part of the attraction of the deal was the opportunity to transfer those staff members over to One Sure.

“They have a vast amount of experience in their specialised field, and they will continue to work primarily within the Unicom brand,” he commented.

Along with the Unicom brand being kept it will continue to trade from its current location in Enfield.

Stoke-on-Trent based One Sure previously bought Staveley Head from administrators in 2020.

Expansion

With the Unicom brand becoming a trading style of One Sure, Lear flagged that it will sit alongside Staveley Head which also trades under its own brand but has different specialisms of motor home, taxi and courier.

“One Sure has access to several capacity providers within the niche area of motor trade road risk including exclusive schemes that Unicom will be able to take advantage of with immediate effect,” Lear continued.

“We also have state of the art IT platforms, including our own software that has been specifically developed to write niche insurance products, giving us a competitive edge in terms of pricing and fraud protection.”

Concluding: “In the longer term we hope to expand on the number of product ranges that Unicom currently offers by cross selling other products that are offered via the wider One Sure brands such as home insurance and personal motor.”

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