Barry Amies revives Baron brokerage

By Stan Sauerwein

Ask Barry Amies if he intends to retire anytime soon and the founder of the Okanagan Valley's Baron Insurance Agencies Ltd. practically chokes. It's like asking him when he intends to quit breathing.

Amies, along with partners Helena Chambers, Patty Kinghorn and Chuck Melanson, look upon the five-year-old reincarnated brokerage (with two offices in Vernon, 450 kilometres northeast of Vancouver, and another in nearby Enderby) as a start-up, even though it has a premium volume of about $15 million, including auto.

The 61-year-old businessman slipped into the insurance game early, and perhaps the memory of how tough it was to get started the first time adds fuel to his dream of rebuilding Baron Insurance Agencies into as large a concern as it once was.

Raised in McBride, 200 kilometres east of Prince George, Amies worked in forestry after graduating high school. He was enticed by a bank manager in Prince George to join the Bank of Nova Scotia, where he spent six years working in McBride, Kitimat (on the coast), Prince George and Vancouver before being transferred to work as a branch accountant in Vernon, the oldest city in B.C.'s interior. (Present population: about 55,000.)

"After being here (Vernon) for a while, we decided it was a place we wanted to live," he says.

Knowing the bank would eventually transfer him again, he started checking out other opportunities.

"I looked around for a job for probably six months," he says. "But in 1967 the job market wasn't very good."

Amies had gotten to know a bank customer who ran a real estate, insurance and mortgage business. The customer felt running the business was more than he wanted to handle.

"If I was interested in insurance he said he'd show me how to run it, so I took him up on the offer."

In 1968 Amies bought that business for $6,000.

Amies quickly learned that even with a seasoned veteran as a mentor, it takes time and savvy to build a profitable insurance agency.

"At that time we didn't make very much money. Everything went into payments on the agency. My wife Donna worked for a lawyer in town and I played in a band three-times a week to augment our income."

As a dance-band organist and base guitar player in The Playmates, Amies managed to earn enough to keep the bailiff from the door for the two years it took the agency to get established. For a time the firm shared space in the old Vernon City Hall with the main office of Kal Tire.

In 1972 Bill Kennedy (now of Vernon's Kennedy Insurance Agencies) joined Amies, followed by Ron Fairburn in 1975, David Simpson (the current Mayor of Lumby, 32 kilometres north of Vernon) in 1975 and Ted Lucuik, who specialized in heavy equipment insurance, in 1980.

With that kind of manpower and sales energy, Baron Insurance grew quickly. Simpson opened a branch of the agency in Lumby and ran it until 1994. As well as a branch in downtown Vernon, Baron opened a financial services office across the street and a new branch in a suburban mall.

Business was brisk, with 53 employees handling premium volume of around $25 million.

Fairburn recalls a hyper-level of activity.

"We build relationships in our business and I think we did a very good job of that," he said. "Barry held his head high as the builder of the brokerage, along with the rest of us, in the way of relationships with our clients. Our adage was: look after the client first and the money will look after itself. I still believe in that and I know Barry does, too."

Amies also involved himself in the industry's professional associations. In 1984 he served as president of IBABC, as first vice-president of IBAC in 1988 and six years later as chairman of both the Insurance Council of B.C. and the Centre for the Study of Insurance Operations.

When Penticton's Valley First Credit Union decided to expand their broker operation northward in the early 1990s, Baron Insurance looked like a good option for some fast-market penetration.

In '94 Amies and his partners decided to take the cash offered by Valley First. The whole Baron team transitioned with the agency, which then took on Valley First's name. Amies worked as a commercial producer with Valley First until changes were made in 1998.

"They decided to sell off the commercial division to Capri Insurance Services, unbeknownst to us."

The sale left the commercial producers, originally with Baron, in a quandary. Valley First had sold the part of the business employing them, but they didn't want to move to Capri as they had hoped to negotiate a purchase themselves - too late, as it turned out. Though each of the commercial producers had five-year non-compete agreements, Valley First "gave us our freedom," says Amies.

In 1999 four of the commercial producers decided to open a new firm in the Okanagan Landing area of Vernon. They called it Landing Insurance Agencies. Helena Chambers, Patty Kinghorn, Wendy Eagleson and Stacey Barber decided to come along from Valley First, as did three people in the group-benefits division.

Landing Insurance had seven people on the payroll - and no business. It reminded Amies of his days with The Playmates.

By March 2001 they had been able to produce about $150,000 in commission from Autoplan and nearly half a million dollars from other classes.

Then the roof caved in.

"Lloyd's was our only market for logging business, and when they decided to pull out of that class of business it left us high and dry. We had to make a decision whether we would just run with the logging business on the books or sell, so we sold that part of things to Capri."

Then Ted Lucuik decided to retire. That left the agency in the hands of Amies and Terry Bradley, with about half the previous volume.

"We were 20 per cent owned by Hi-Alta Capital at that time," Amies says.

Six months later the partnership changed yet again. Whillis Harding Insurance Agencies, which was owned by Hi-Alta, approached the partners asking for the help of a marketer. Bradley agreed to go to Kelowna, south of Vernon, on the eastern shore of Okanagan Lake.

"We thought it was inevitable that we form a strong relationship with Hi-Alta. Well, he (Bradley) went down there, took a job with Whillis Harding, and left our partnership. About two weeks later Hi-Alta approached us to sell out."

Amies says he negotiated for two months in 2001, trying to settle on a selling price. When it came to the point of a handshake on terms, however, he had a change of heart.

"I'd been there before and I didn't want to be there again, so I told them I didn't want to sell. We really hadn't had the chance to see how much we could grow."

Hi-Alta president Scott Tannas wasn't amused. He was unprepared to wait to see if the agency could grow, knowing he'd then face the potential of paying more. Instead of walking away he gave Amies the choice of selling his shares or buying out Hi-Alta's. Amies opted to buy.

"At the time we were struggling and we couldn't really afford too many heavy hitters within the agency. I knew I was sticking my neck out, but I didn't feel uncomfortable with it. I don't think any of the rest of the staff had any qualms either."

In 2001 Amies learned Valley First had dispensed with the Baron name.

"So we changed the name of the agency corporately to Baron Insurance Agencies Group Inc., which operates as Landing Insurance Agency."

The agency restructured one more time. Kinghorn and Chambers, who had worked together for a quarter of a century, got the opportunity to join Amies as partners.

By 2002 the agency was earning a healthy profit - just in time, it would turn out, for Chuck Melanson to make an approach that would see the born-again Baron Insurance expand quickly.

Melanson had purchased the commercial side of Matt Hassen Insurance Agencies in the Okanagan Valley town of Armstrong in 2001. However, as a one-person shop with a commercial portfolio of half-a-million dollars, the operation was too small to sustain the growth Melanson wanted.

"We found out we had a lot of things in common as individuals," Amies said, "and we felt it would be better to combine our volumes, which is what the companies want these days."

So Melanson became a partner in the Baron operation, which was followed up by some further expansion. Together, they purchased Elmer's Insurance Agency in Enderby in March 2003 while Baron bought Lloyd Insurance Service in Vernon two months later.

Baron holds 51 per cent of Lloyd; the remainder is owned by Vernon and District Credit Union. Baron has an option to purchase the balance by May 2005. Amies said he expects that will happen.

Baron hired a young, aggressive producer in Matthew Leck, and Amies' daughter, Nicole Loose, has also joined the firm. But even with the fresh faces the new Baron has enough similarities to the original firm to qualify as déjà vu. The agency has about 35 per cent market share in Auto Plan in the Vernon area now, with 23 employees in four offices (which again includes a three-person financial services group called Landing Financial Services and run by Keven Trach. The main office of Baron Insurance Agencies Group Inc. also has an affiliate life producer, Tim Peters. All three offices on the general side now work under the common operating name of Baron Insurance Broker Group.).

And Ted Lucuik, 65, decided to cancel retirement and come back to work.

"I missed the buzz around the office and the industry relationships too much," he said.

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