Neil Barlow is the Director responsible for Copperwheat Barlow. He commenced his career in insurance in 1975 at Lloyd’s of London, co-founded Harbour Insurance Brokers Ltd [Copperwheat Barlow’s holding company] with Philip Purdie in 1995, is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute and a Chartered Insurance Broker.

When Neil started his own business at the end of 1991 as a marine insurance broker, he contacted one of his previous clients, Edward Hobson, to see if he could be of assistance operating in an independent capacity. Some years earlier, Edward Hobson had bought a farm on the edge of Dartmoor. Whereas Mr Hobson had no business of interest on the marine insurance side, he mentioned that he was having problems obtaining the right type of insurance cover for his farming activity. Mr Hobson’s view was that too few dedicated insurance schemes were available at that time suitable for farmers.

Neil set out to put together a comprehensive insurance package with first class insurers and keenly priced premiums for Mr Hobson and his west country colleagues to benefit from. This was successfully achieved.

With Mr Hobson’s farming nous and Mr Barlow’s insurance management background, they teamed up together to provide an inclusive insurance service to the agricultural community in the south west of England. Thus, Neil’s first farm and estate insurance broking house, H.B. Insurance Services Ltd, was established in 1992.

In the next few years, Neil’s marine insurance business expanded and he was still resident in Kent with one office in London and another in Devon. He was recommended to approach one of the larger farming buying groups in the south east of England, Rother Valley Farmers Ltd., to see if the company’s insurance products would be useful to the group’s membership. Indeed they were ! He began taking on more and more business from the counties of Kent and Sussex.

Something had to give. Neil decided to hand all the farm and estates insurance business in the south west of England to Edward Hobson and bring in another specialist insurance broker, David Copperwheat, to handle the day to day running of south eastern account. Hence “Copperwheat Barlow” was born.

In due course, David Copperwheat decided to leave the insurance industry. Nevertheless, the clients of the company were so pleased with the company’s service that they decided to continue to support Neil and his staff in the farm and estates insurance venture after Mr Copperwheat’s departure from the business.

Copperwheat Barlow has enjoyed working for their farming clients over the years and, as a consequence of receiving first class service and competitive premiums, they have remained extremely loyal to Copperwheat Barlow. This resulted in a steady book of business and Copperwheat Barlow is probably now the leading farm insurance broking house in the south east of England.
 

Copperwheat Barlow has only ever used specialist agricultural insurers to place its business. These have included the likes of the strongest rated insurance companies operating in the United Kingdom today.
 

Because of its recognised expertise in the market, Copperwheat Barlow also has delegated underwriting approval by FarmWeb, a farm insurance scheme using the National Insurance And Guarantee PLC [NIG] as security. The NIG are part of the Royal Bank of Scotland/NatWest Bank group which also includes Direct Line and Churchill insurance companies.

With this quality range of security, Copperwheat Barlow’s farming and land owning clients have a wide choice in placing their risks without paying over the odds in premium.

Copperwheat Barlow is a member of the Ring of Agricultural Machinery of Sussex and Kent Ltd [Ramsak], and would be happy to assist the other members of Ramsak with the purchase of their insurances.

In 2003, Dave Quinn, a prominent member and sometime director and chairman of Ramsak, asked Copperwheat Barlow to look over his own farm insurance cover. As well as being a farmer, Mr Quinn also is an Independent Financial Advisor. In that capacity, Mr Quinn and his colleagues are often asked to help various businesses and clients to help with general insurance problems. He has been very happy to recommend Copperwheat Barlow to assist them.

The word gradually spread about Copperwheat Barlow’s development into the field of general insurance.

Liability insurance premiums for the Roofing and Scaffolding industries have escalated in the 21st Century. Perhaps worse still, the insurance capacity for such cover has greatly reduced. This has left roofers and scaffolders with far higher insurance premiums than had previously been the case combined with a lack of choice of insurance providers. Copperwheat Barlow made a thorough survey of the insurance market available for this class of business.

In 2004, following tremendous efforts canvassing the insurance market, Copperwheat Barlow was successful in devising Public Liability and Employers’ Liability cover with “A+” and other insurance security with, at sometimes, massive savings in premium.

Gradually, Copperwheat Barlow was approached by more and more companies requesting help to cover their businessses.

Copperwheat Barlow has been pleased to assist steel fabricators, consulting and design engineers, warehousers and packers, management consultants, hauliers, contractors, construction companies and many many other trades and businesses in the placement of their insurance covers.
 

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