The ravenously acquisitive insurance conglomerate buys J. Gregory Brown & Co. of California.
By JEFF HARRINGTON
Published February 6, 2004
For a company with an unquenchable thirst for acquisitions, it was bound to happen sooner or later.
The Brown & Brown insurance conglomerate is buying ... Brown.
Brown & Brown, which is under the leadership of J. Hyatt Brown, said Thursday that it has acquired J. Gregory Brown & Co., a small, retail insurance agency with offices in Los Angeles and Newport Beach, Calif.
The Florida agency, operating from dual headquarters in Tampa and Daytona Beach, has been a merger machine since going public in 1993: 16 acquisitions of small agencies around the country last year; 19 mergers in 2002; close to 30 in its record year 2001.
So far this year, it already has chalked up five acquisitions in fewer than five weeks.
But this is the first time Brown has acquired a namesake, says chief financial officer Cory Walker. (He doesn't count the time in the 1980s when Brown still was private and bought an agency named Browne, with an E, in Fort Lauderdale.)
Walker seemed surprised this hasn't happened sooner.
"You look in the phone book, there's an awful lot of Browns," he said. "You're bound to encounter them once in a while."
Maybe the ubiquitous nature of the name, Brown & Brown execs say, is why UPS liked the earthy color enough to adopt it as its own.
The latest deal came after Brown & Brown's regional executive in charge of the western United States, Ken Kirk, discovered J. Gregory Brown as a buyout opportunity late last year.
Terms weren't disclosed, but the California Brown does about $5-million in annual revenues selling insurance products for property and casualty and employee benefits. The management team of Greg Brown and Jody Smith, along with their staff, will join Brown & Brown.
There's some obvious advantages. All Brown & Brown has to do is tweak stationery and signage. Plus, while acquisitions can be disruptive to business, some customers of the California Brown may remain oblivious to the ownership change. "They might think they just brought a son into the business," Walker mused.
For the record, Walker confirms, J. Hyatt is not related to J. Gregory. But don't be surprised if the latter Brown gets treated with some extra respect when flashing his name tag at company picnics.
