Loss adjuster Agrical merges with international player McLarens
YORKSHIRE loss adjusting and claims management business Agrical has merged with international business McLarens.
Tadcaster-based Agrical, which specialises in the farming, estates, commercial leisure and high net worth markets.
The deal saw two Leeds-based firms of advisers joining forces, as experts from Mazars’ corporate finance department, led by Dave Smithson and Alex Baskeyfield and lawyers from Clarion, headed by Christian Hunt and Rachel Dean, advised Agrical on the sale.
The move elevates McLarens to become the largest UK niche commercial loss adjusting business, in addition to creating a significant platform for expansion into the agriculture and related markets across McLarens’ global footprint.
McLarens has grown significantly in recent years, both organically and by acquisition, and this is the specialist adjuster’s second major UK transaction since launching in this country in 2006.
On an international level, McLarens merged with the leading global aviation adjuster, Airclaims, headquartered in the UK, in 2011. More recently in the UK, McLarens secured a 50% share of Zurich’s commercial business.
Agrical was formed in 2002 with a core focus on agricultural claims but has since expanded into complementary related markets including estates, commercial leisure, renewable energy and high net worth. The business now employs 50 staff across 22 UK locations.
Now trading as Agrical, a McLarens Company, the business will continue to operate independently but now as a fully owned entity within the McLarens group. Agrical retains the same management team and staff who have been integral to the success of the business thus far.
Alex Baskeyfield, corporate finance manager at Mazars, said: “Agrical has a strong management team who have established a very successful business in a niche area of loss adjusting. There is a very strong fit between the Agrical and McLarens businesses and the sale to McLarens presents a very exciting opportunity to develop further the business and allow McLarens to expand into the UK agriculture market. I am delighted to be able to support Agrical with the completion of this transaction and its positive impact on the business moving forward.”
Christian Hunt, corporate finance partner at Leeds law firm Clarion, added: “It’s always good to be part of a team of Yorkshire advisers. This deal marks another key milestone in Agrical’s development putting it in a strong position for further growth as part of a leading international group.”
Trevor Latimer, McLarens’ managing director, said: “Since re-launching the UK business, we have focused very much on organic growth and in that time, have opened a further 13 offices across the UK and Ireland, seeing revenue increase 12 fold.”
“It is clear in my mind that there is a significant appetite for our model. We retain a commitment to specialising in commercial loss adjusting, bringing true added value whilst distancing ourselves from trailing supply chain solutions which bolster revenue but create so many obvious strategic and ethical conflicts.”
Mike Collins, Agrical chief executive, said: “There are many similarities between Agrical and McLarens in style, structure and ethos. Like McLarens, we have built our reputation on traditional specialist loss adjusting.
“It is important to us and our clients that we partner with a business that shares our philosophies. My personal relationship with Trevor stretches back over many decades to our days on Tyneside and is based on a mutual belief of what loss adjusting should be about.”
