Hub on buying spree

Hub International Ltd. (TSX: HBG) has added four new brokerages to the network’s stable. In Ontario, Hub subsidiary Gifford Associates Insurance Brokers Ltd. purchased Ottawa-based O’Neil & Company Ltd. O’Neil sells commercial and personal property and casualty products, with a focus on the forestry industry. In business since 1935, it brings in annual commission revenue of about $750,000.

New England subsidiary C.J. McCarthy Insurance Agency has purchased the assets of Trussell Insurance Agency of Newburyport, Massachusetts, and Trussell, Glidden and Mahoney Insurance Agency, based in Greenland, New Hampshire. Both firms specialize in insurance for the real estate business and combined earn about US$1.3 million in annual revenues.

Hub’s Michigan-based brokerage Burnham Insurance Group also acquired Warner Associates Inc. of Montgomery, Alabama. Warner, a 20-year-old business, specializes in direct marketing life and health insurance to retail customers of financial institutions.

Hub has nine large “hub” brokerage networks in the U.S. and Canada, each of which both operates as a brokerage and manages other smaller operations.