Insurance markets tend to converge on the same risks. Capacity follows data, and data favours the familiar. But at the margins, where information is limited and perception more pronounced, pricing and appetite can diverge sharply.
For Marc Loud, managing director of Park Insurance, those margins have defined the business for more than three decades. Founded by his father in 1983 as a small motor and household broker in Bristol, the firm has grown into a specialist in sectors many insurers have historically avoided.
That positioning was not the result of a single strategic decision, but a series of developments shaped by proximity, relationships and experience.
The firm’s entry into leisure risks began with a small acquisition that included a handful of fairground accounts. Initial hesitation gave way to long-standing relationships with showmen after the previous owner encouraged him to meet the clients before making a decision. That visit shaped the business that followed.
That familiarity has since translated into scale. Park Insurance is now one of the largest brokers in the UK specialising in showmen risks, Loud said, reflecting the firm’s long-standing position in the sector.
The route into other sectors followed a similar pattern. Early efforts to build a broader commercial book led the firm into barber shops and, later, beauty salons, areas where risk could be understood and managed with relatively low exposure. Over time, those incremental moves built wider capability, but the focus on underserved niches remained central.
“We tend to go after everything that other brokers aren’t chasing,” Loud said, describing a strategy focused on less contested parts of the market.
Many of the sectors Park operates in remain constrained not by underlying risk, but by perception.
“I think we are still stuck in our ways,” Loud said, pointing to long-standing assumptions about certain trades. “There’s good and bad in everything.”
That dynamic is reinforced by limited data. While mainstream commercial classes benefit from extensive datasets, niche sectors often rely more heavily on broker insight and qualitative judgement. In a market increasingly driven by data, that can restrict appetite before risks are fully assessed.
“We’ve gone into a very data-driven market,” he said. “But when you’re looking at things like the adult industry or fairgrounds, there’s not a lot of data that people can get their hands on.”
Where capacity does enter these sectors, it is not always sustained. Loud pointed to instances where new entrants target niche markets with limited understanding, competing aggressively on price before withdrawing.
“They come in at half the premiums,” he said. “They write it for a couple of years and then come out of it.”
The longer-term effect is that insurers attribute losses to the class itself rather than to how it was underwritten or presented. That can reduce appetite further and limit available capacity for established books.
“Brokers can do a lot of damage to certain sectors,” Loud said, referring to inconsistent pricing and presentation of risk.
In that environment, placement depends heavily on the depth of knowledge behind the submission.
Park’s longevity in leisure risks has allowed it to build a detailed understanding of how those businesses operate, from ride mechanics to regulatory oversight. This, Loud said, is critical in securing underwriter confidence.
“We know that industry inside out, so we can give confidence to underwriters,” he said.
By contrast, placements are more likely to fail where risks are presented without sufficient context. In niche sectors, underwriters may have limited internal expertise to draw on, increasing reliance on the broker’s interpretation.
The same applies in more sensitive areas. Loud said successful placement depends on a willingness to engage directly with the detail of the risk, even where that may be uncomfortable.
For some sectors, the constraint is not technical but reputational. Incidents in leisure environments are more likely to attract public attention, particularly where children are involved, creating additional sensitivity for insurers. At the same time, those risks are subject to significant regulatory oversight, with frequent inspections and controls.
“They get checked so much,” Loud said. “We’d write it all day long.”
That disconnect between perceived and actual risk remains a defining feature of the market.
Park Insurance has grown to around 40 staff and is targeting further expansion, with premium income expected to reach £18m. That growth comes as the firm continues to operate independently in a market where consolidation remains a dominant trend.
“We’re fiercely independent,” Loud said, adding that the business has no plans to sell or consolidate.
The structure reflects its ownership model. With a second and third generation now entering the business, decisions are framed around continuity rather than exit, a position that contrasts with much of the wider broking market.
“We’ve got to do it right for their future,” Loud said.
In markets where appetite can shift quickly, that stability shapes how the business approaches risk. At the margins of the market, opportunity exists, but only for those able to sustain underwriting discipline in parts of the market others have entered and exited.
