A LONG-established Coleraine insurance firm is re-routing millions of pounds of business to a new operation in Dublin in a move it believes its necessary to safeguard its business in the post-Brexit era.
MCL InsureTech, the name behind online brands Its4women, 25plus and Boxymo, is opening a hub in Swords, where it will create 40 new roles.
Its chief executive Gary McClarty insists it will give the company assurance that it can access 500 million potential customers in the single market and easily manage its Irish customer-base without the restriction of any Brexit-induced regulations.
And it follows on from MCL InsureTech’s successful application for regulation by the Central Bank of Ireland which allows its new Swords centre to become its own Irish entity, operating separately from the northern base.
The company, spawned from a small family brokerage with offices in Coleraine, Ballymoney and Limavady, currently services around €70 million (£60m) of gross written premium and 90,000 customers in Ireland.
That business was originally processed at its Coleraine base, where MCL has operated for 10 years.
“But the threat of a hard Brexit has forced us to set a mechanism in place to protect our EU business, and this has resulted in the launch of a new Irish entity based in Dublin and unfortunately the loss of €70m worth of business to the Northern Ireland economy, Mr McCarty said.
“This office will allow us to operate in the single market and access the 500 million people in that market. Unfortunately, after Brexit, when the UK becomes in effect a third country, any passporting rules that Northern Ireland was privy to will no longer apply.”
Mr McClarty said that he did not foresee any job losses in his northern operation, but said any new business and products for the larger European markets will be routed through the new Swords base.
“Now that we are authorised by the Central Bank there are exciting times ahead for our business in the south. We will be launching a range of new products and services that will benefit the Swords and wider area in terms of employment for now and in years to come.”
MCL InsureTech has serviced the whole of Ireland for the past decade and during that time it has tripled its staff numbers in Coleraine to 102.
According to its most recent set of accounts, covering the year to March 2019, MCL made a profit of £9.5m on a turnover of £11.7m.
