Demers’ Insurance is celebrating a new chapter in their 40-plus year journey.
Guy Demers, president and CEO of the local insurance broker, joined forces with Navacord, an Ontario-based company consisting of multiple businesses like Demers’ Insurance working together to “compete against marketing insurance organizations.”
The long-time Bonnyville businesses signed the dotted line earlier this month, in hopes of expanding the opportunities for their firm.
“What they do is provide a lot more markets, and expertise, a lot more than I could ever come up with on my own,” expressed Demers.
Over the years, the insurance broker has grown from Demers’ father’s sole-run establishment to what it is today.
After purchasing the insurance office in 1979, Demers’ dad grew the business to two employees before retiring.
”When I took it over, I grew it about five times his size. It does grow, because premiums increase, because the town populations increase, and the business activity in Bonnyville has increased,” Demers noted.
This next step is another opportunity for growth, explained Demers.
He said Demers’ Insurance can now “tap into (Navacord’s) markets and start competing against some of the bigger brokers” for clients they may have turned down in the past.
Demers’ Insurance will now be able to offer coverage for larger companies.
“When you’re only a four or five person brokerage, you just can’t handle a great big account. If you have an account with 500 employees, I can’t send one of my employees, or myself, out there for three or four days and spend two months trying to get this account and ignore all of my other clients. Normally, when we have a big enough account, we would turn them away… Now we can handle it.”
Prior to joining Navacord, Demers’ company focused more on personal line insurance, such as home, auto, and small commercial, which includes farms.
Now that they’re working hand-in-hand with a larger organization, they’re open to a world of possibilities.
”There’s nothing off the table. We can insure anything now,” expressed Demers.
The local office will also be partnering with LloydSadd Insurance out of Edmonton, a company that has also signed on with Navacord.
”They’ll be helping me out in trying to grow my business and their business,” Demers detailed.
When it comes to changes his clients will see, Demers stressed it’s business as usual.
“Everything stays the same. Our staff stays the same, our name stays the same, our community commitments stay the same, we will still be providing to local charities and things like that… I still have control over the agency, I just have a person to answer to.”
Although they’re now run by a national company, Demers is keeping his business community-focused.
He said, “We want to keep everything as local as possible... I was born and raised here. Our hockey teams, sporting events, it’s all part of being from Bonnyville. I want Bonnyville to succeed. I don’t want to see corporations come around buying out the local businesses. It changes the outlook of a town, it’s not the same.”
In a press release, Navacord’s executive director T Marshall Sadd, said, “We’re excited to have presence in northern Alberta through Demers’ Insurance. It formalizes a strategic relationship that’s been in place between LloydSadd and Demers and now enables further opportunities for growth.”
“I’m excited for it because it’s a new chapter in my life. I like the fact that it keeps a local touch, but we have national strength,” Demers added.
