A Southside Story
In 1971, two brothers from Orland Park, Ill., crane operators by day and insurance men by night, began a small enterprise known as The Horton Group.
You can argue, though, that the agency got its real start in 1982, when the current CEO, Glenn Horton, and one of the original producers, Frank Poppie purchase it from Glenn's father.
At the time, Horton had nine employees and $300,000 in revenues. Twenty-seven years later, it has nine offices in five states, 320 employees and $46 million in revenues.
About half of the agency's growth can be attributed to the nearly 30 acquisitions the owners have made since 1995, ranging in sixe from a producer's book of business to a Milwaukee agency.
They even acquired a large wholesaling division in 1999 now run by Glenn's aunt and her husband.
Today, about 65 percent of The Horton Group is owned by Glenn Horton, Frank Poppie, Tom Palmer and Chuck Naso. The other 35 percent is owned by about 25 Horton employee, most of them producers, and all of them committed to Horton's success.
A Rugged Mentality
Jason Wallace began working for The Horton Group in 1997. They had 60 employees then and $8 million in revenues.
He led Horton's wholesaling division, then its small business unit and eventually its telemarketing prospecting, a function he expanded, improved and renamed New Business Development.
In 2005, he assumed his current position as Division President of Horton Risk Management Services in Illinois. In this role, he manages 15 producers and 30 support staff who service accounts generating $5,000 or more in revenues. Of Horton's $46 million, HRMS-IL is responsible for 12 of it.
Jason believes one of the reasons the agency is so successful is the relentless work ethic of its employees, many of whom hail from the blue collar origins of Chicago's Southside.
"They say Horton employees have this rugged mentality that makes them work a little harder," he says. "They have dirt under their fingernails. At our core, we're that type of agency."
A Diversified Approach
According to Jason, Horton is a well-diversified agency with a dual core competency in both employee benefits and commercial property and casualty lines.
Managers wear two hats and maintain their own accounts. As a result, there's less pressure to meet overhead and "no management from a cocoon," he says.
Producers focus on the metropolitan areas of Chicago, Milwaukee and Phoenix, where Horton's offices are located. About $35 million of their business in Illinois, but they have accounts nationwide and transact business as far away as Beijing.
Horton's five P&C practice divisions are: Transportation, Surety, Medical Malpractice, started about one year ago; Construction; and the agency's largest practice group, Manufacturing.
They will continue to diversify into the future, he says, but acquisitions will be more strategic.
A Unique Partnership
Jason serves on FCCI's Midwest Agents’' Advisory Council and had never met a carrier's board of directors until he FCCI's Board in November.
"We have a lot of carriers that we work with, but a lot of them are just vanilla," he says. "They're big; they're bureaucratic; they try not to break too many dishes as they run through the room."
It's FCCI's consistency, partnership and responsiveness-at multiple levels-Jason says, that make the relationship work.
As far as FCCI is concerned, this agency is one to watch.