CGU’s 55-year business relationship with leading WA and Queensland agricultural machinery dealership and farm supplier McIntosh & Son is one both companies are rightly proud.
In our former guise as Commercial Union, CGU was the insurer to this great family business on the first day McIntosh opened its doors in Wongan Hills in WA on 1 July 1955.
We have continued to work in partnership with the McIntosh family through the years as both of our businesses grew and evolved, and today, CGU continues to hold all of McIntosh’s insurance.
Early days
McIntosh principal Ian McIntosh has been integral to this great relationship. He went to work part-time with his dad Les, when Les, then an ANZ bank manager, decided to make a career change after 30 years in the banking industry and opened the first McIntosh machinery dealership all those years ago.
Ian was studying for a degree in business management by correspondence at the time and after completing his studies joined as his Dad’s right-hand man, taking over the management of the company in 1962.
As Ian remembers it, the McIntosh business was a Commercial Union direct agent in the very beginning.
“We started the business on 1 July 1955 and from Day 1 we were a Commercial Union agency – and we have kept all of our insurances with Commercial Union and CGU since that time; that’s all of them bar none, from property to motor fleet,” he says.
“I remember around 1956-57 selling crop insurance to customers. I can’t remember when the exact date was, but we lost the agency to Elders – Commercial Union appointed their own representative to the Wongan Hills district, I think his name was Ron Jones, and he represented all the accounts handled by Commercial Union. But we have kept all of our insurance with them and CGU as our business has grown.”
A true long-term business partnership
55 years without a break – that’s a true long-term business partnership rarely found these days. So much has changed in that time.
The McIntosh business has added another five sites in WA and two in Queensland to its first premises in Wongan Hills, and now employs 240 people – it’s a virtual one-stop shop for farmers and dealers in the rural communities it serves. It’s a veritable business success story.
Today, Ian is the company’s chairman (far right - image courtesy of Farm Weekly) and his two sons, Stuart (middle) and Cameron (left), lead the way – Stuart taking Ian’s former role as managing director, while Cameron looks after the importation of much of the agricultural equipment they deal in, which mainly comes from Canada.
Trust and service
According to Ian, trust and service are two of the keys that have underpinned his company’s long-term relationship with CGU.
“When we’ve had problems and we’ve had a few over the years – such as the floods in Moora in 2009 when we lost a fair bit of property, you just said send us an estimate of the amount you think you’ve lost,” he says.
“You didn’t question a cent of this estimate and you paid it quickly – it was in the bank within a few days. You couldn’t fault it, and that’s not changed.”
With a motor fleet the size of McIntosh’s these days you also get the odd prang – again, that’s when the close relationship comes into play
“We’ve got plenty of motor vehicles on the road and every so often one of them hits a roo or something, and causes a bit of damage – and it’s always paid quickly; it’s never questioned,” says Ian.
“The service is brilliant, and there’s trust in the relationship so neither of us need to question. We don’t claim for every little thing – sometimes it’s our fault and we recognise that – we only claim when it’s fair. But when we do, it’s never questioned, and it’s paid promptly.”
Loyalty goes both ways
Not surprisingly, McIntosh has been regularly approached by other insurance companies offering to do their insurance cheaper, but for Ian, the trust that has been built in the relationship with CGU over the years is an investment and benefit far greater than a one-off saving in annual premium.
“We’ve had plenty of other insurance companies come to us over the past 50 years saying they can do our insurance cheaper. We know if we shop around we can get the costs down, but you stay with people you can trust and with whom you have a long-term relationship.”
“We might have to pay a little bit more but we are investing in it too – it’s a great association – it’s good for us and a relationship we can trust.”
After 55 years, you can’t say fairer than that