ST&R Ltd: the meteoric rise of the Lancashire insurance firm which went from loss-making to profit-taking, 100 staff, and boxing sponsorships

And while James Slater, the founder of Chorley-based insurance and mortgage broker ST&R Limited, would baulk at labelling himself great, he doesn’t hesitate when it comes to dishing out credit for his company’s decade of growth.

“I’ve been in financial services all my life and I decided to set up my own insurance call centre in 2012,” he explains. “We set up in a small office with about 14 staff and made a loss in our first year - it was a lot tougher financially than I thought it’d be. I’d given up a well-paid director’s job to go self-employed, but my wife gave me the drive to persist.

“She always believed and so, while it was a massive step, my wife was totally on board to set up the new business together,” adds James, with ST&R Ltd having recently celebrated its 10th birthday. “The early days were hard, but if you have a good proposition like we did, it’ll eventually come good. Before long, a business was a loss-maker in year one was transformed into a successful business.

“And I wouldn’t be where I am today without my wife, my family, and my staff - they’re amazing. It’s a real family business.”

Ringing in the 10th anniversary with a day of team-building activities and awards for employees, the company whisked their 100-strong staff away to a smattering of luxury tipis in Riley Green where they were treated to food, drinks, music, and a chance to try their hand at the legendary TV show The Crystal Maze.

What’s more, Chorley-born professional boxer Jack Catterall - whom the company not only sponsor, but who they also provide life insurance for, too - was on hand to present awards to members of staff who’ve worked for the company since the very beginning. It’s been a long journey, but ST&R Ltd are now established as one of the North West’s premier brokers.

“The key to our success was a unique concept we came up with, which was online storage which allowed us to sell insurance, give people a link to their policy, then get alerts when it was up for renewal,” says James. “We could then go off and get back to people with a new deal. We were one of the first companies to do that and it gave us an edge.”

But no edge could combat the massive culture-shift necessitated by the Covid-19 pandemic.

“My initial reaction to Covid was ‘oh no, what can we do?’” says James. “A target-driven sales environment is hard to maintain when people are working from home. But we survived, and home working has opened up recruitment opportunities for us - people can now work for us whilst being based at home in the big cities because we can just divert calls to them.

“It was all about turning a negative into a positive,” he adds. “We’ve got a great base of customers now and insurance and mortgages are always going to be something people need, so there’s good job stability. I’m positive about the future.”