Jenkins Athens Insurance Services, the Concord insurance brokerage and employee benefits firm, has renamed itself Jenkins Insurance Group in a brand repositioning move that consolidates all of its services under one name.
The name change will take place in two steps: the new brand and logo will be introduced immediately for the company’s property and casualty insurance services, and in early 2009 for the firm’s benefits division, Athens Benefits. The Athens name was introduced in the 1980s when the firm expanded into offering employee benefits services.
Jenkins had premium volume of $436 million last year, up from $423 million in 2006. It is the third-largest brokerage in the East Bay, according to East Bay Business Times research.
The company is repositioning itself at a time of upheaval and consolidation in the insurance industry, which has seen commercial property and casualty premiums decline 5 to 15 percent a year for the past four years as companies fight for market share.
The drive to strengthen market share and leadership in growth markets while at the same time increasing economies of scale is behind a number of recent mergers, including Willis Group Holdings Ltd.’s $2.1 billion acquisition of rival Hilb Rogal & Hobbs Co., a deal announced earlier this month. London-based Willis is the third-largest broker in the world behind Aon Inc. and Marsh & McLennan.
Closer to home, Oakland firm Saylor & Hill Co. in May completed a merger with Barney & Barney LLC of San Diego. And Wells Fargo & Co. has made a string of acquisitions in the insurance space over the last several years.
Independent brokerages have sold out to larger firms as founders sought an exit strategy, and, increasingly, as they have found it is harder to compete against larger, deep-pocketed firms.
Jenkins CEO Curt Perata said Jenkins is committed to remaining independent. The 71-year-old company was started by James W. Jenkins and is still family-owned. The founder’s son, James C. Jenkins, is chairman of the company, and a member of the third generation, James R. Jenkins, is president of the Athens Administrators division.
“Rebranding costs a lot of money,” Perata said. “There is a lot of investment and a lot of thought process that goes into the brand.” In this case, the name change was a way to better reflect the values and history and relationships that the firm has, he said. Jenkins has spent close to $500,000 on the rebranding effort, Perata said, which includes a new Web site. “In these times it is significant investment.”
The premium declines are good for Jenkins’ clients, but the flip side is that commissions go down as well. Jenkins has grown its total client numbers 10 to 15 percent on both sides of its business, Perata said, but revenue on the property and casualty side, which accounts for about 60 percent of the company’s total revenue, is flat. Revenue on the benefits side, meanwhile, is growing 10 to 15 percent annually.
In 2007, Jenkins’ revenue was $39 million, roughly flat with $38 million in 2006. Perata declined to disclose exact income figures, but said the income from the benefits side has remained strong while income from the property and casualty side has seen a lot of downward pressure.
Jenkins hopes to leverage the repositioning of its brand to bring in more business, and increase the amount of cross-selling it does between its divisions. Right now, about a third of its customers buy services from both sides of its business, Perata said.
