After an accelerated period of hiring, Lockton Re is ahead on its growth targets

After a period of intense hiring and expansion, Lockton Re says it is “well ahead” in its growth plans and is now able to be more choosy—in terms of hires and clients it wants to work with.

Ross Howard (pictured left), Lockton Re’s global executive chairman; Tim Gardner (pictured right), global CEO, Keith Harrison (pictured center right), CEO of International; and Bob Bisset (pictured center left), chairman of global retrocession, property specialty, Bermuda and market capital spoke to journalists at a media briefing at the at Rendez-Vous de Septembre in Monte Carlo.

“We’ve accelerated dramatically through hiring,” Gardner said. “Now, I think that will slow; we’ve largely filled all the segments we hope to be in.”

Harrison added: “We are well ahead of our plans in terms of our growth in every facet—headcount, capability, client count, revenue, and return on investment.”

Gardner said the company’s strategy to onboarding talent is now focused on creating “great assets”, not just “filling a spot”. It wants to focus on the “quality of growth” rather than just the revenues.

“There’s revenue and then there’s the quality of that revenue, and one of things we are proud of is the quality of our clients.”

Bisset added: “We very much think of things globally rather than regionally. Our strategy is to target global companies and then drive that capability and the specialties regionally. We’ve deliberately set up the Lloyd’s operations to target the main reinsurance buying hubs.

“We have operations in the US, Bermuda, and London, and have opened an office in Zurich, but we’re not in a desperate hurry to plant flags down in every territory around around the globe.”

The reinsurance industry is bracing itself for a challenging renewal season amid a capacity crunch in some lines. “This is clearly a theme that is coming across loud and clear. We felt it in June, July, and that momentum is probably only gaining traction as we move to 1/1,” said Gardner.

“We’re preparing clients for what I think is going to be a pretty challenging market. We certainly anticipate rates moving but we don’t expect it to be carnage,” he said.

“We’ve heard some numbers thrown around about a massive gap between supply and demand. We don’t necessarily see it,” Gardner said. “We’ll know once the dust settles exactly how much of this is rhetoric and how much reality.”