Why It’s Peachy Working at Peach
Three years ago, NPA Insurance realised its ambition of harnessing its deep and broad experience of community pharmacy and offering it for the benefit of a broader SME business community. How? With the creation of Peach, a trading style of NPAI offering niche commercial insurance to community focussed professionals in the health and wellbeing sector. Over the last three years, this remit has broadened to provide schemes solutions to a much wider spectrum of businesses – all through its closely forged broker partnerships.
It is this unique blend of NPAI’s long and strong heritage with a spirit of entrepreneurialism and agility which makes Peach so unique – and such a compelling place to work. One member of our team who is thriving in this creative environment is Jack Pope-Costa, who joined the team two years ago and is now our Development Underwriter. He shared what he loves about working at Peach.
“I have always wanted to be an underwriter. It’s true! I studied history at university, and while I was studying, I managed to secure some work experience with Arthur J Gallagher. And I loved it! Especially my interactions with Lloyds – its past really appealed to me as a history undergraduate. So, after I graduated, I got a job with a brokerage in Hertfordshire. I really enjoyed it, but knew that ultimately, I still wanted to be an underwriter. I realised then that while broking is all about being customer facing, what I love most is getting my brain around the more technical side of things. So, I started looking around and came across an opportunity with Peach. I knew a bit about NPAI, as one of my mates is a doctor working in pharmacy – he’d told me about it being one of the most unique insurers in the market, thanks to its long relationship with community pharmacy. Like Lloyds, NPAI’s heritage resonated with me as a historian!
A tight, talented team
I was really impressed at my interview – I got a glimpse of the type of people I would be working with and was excited by their experience and skills. I knew I’d be the youngest on the team and that I would be able to soak up their knowledge and learn so much from them. Even though I joined the team without a lot of direct experience, they have been very inclusive and genuinely interested in my perspective on how things might be done differently, which I really appreciate. There is a strong sense of wanting to see things with a fresh perspective rather than doing things how they’ve always been done.
The team is quite small which has been great for me. My senior underwriter, Rob, has helped me develop much faster than I would have been able to in a larger organisation. The agility of the team has been so valuable for me – it’s meant I’ve had the chance to engage with so many different experiences and everyone is happy to answer my questions and share their experience. I feel I’ve come such a long way very quickly. My most momentous achievement to date as to be when I underwrote my first risk – that was a huge milestone for me. That and being promoted after a year to Development Underwriter – a lot of responsibility but I really relish it. I’m immensely proud of what I’ve achieved in two years – and hugely grateful to my colleagues for seeing my potential and helping me get there.
A unique insurer and employer
There aren’t many insurers like Peach. It has a very clear vision of what it does and what it wants to achieve. Peach has positioned itself as a niche insurer who can provide brokers with the capacity they increasingly can’t find with the larger insurers, who want bigger books of business. Peach really puts the time in to building strong, collaborative connections with their intermediary partners to create and enhance flexible schemes for their customers – it’s really exciting. Our schemes are getting more diverse – from leisure to beauticians – I love the variation. And I’m also exposed to so many different elements of the business outside of underwriting, which I wouldn’t get somewhere else.
If anyone asks me what it’s like working at Peach I say it’s great! Working for a small team means that what you do – at whatever level – has a direct impact on the company and you can see how your own individual achievements are helping the company grow. Not many people at my stage in their career can say that!”