Russell White: Peach set to become main driver of premium across NPA Insurance

At the end of 2024, niche commercial insurer Peach decided to rebrand in a move it described as “reflecting the evolution of the business”.

The firm had been known as Peach Pi, but wanted to drop the ‘Pi’ to dispel any lingering perceptions that the business was all about professional indemnity.

The brand refresh formed the first phase of a three-year strategic plan to grow the business and shift the portfolio mix to meet this goal.

Since then, the business has been going from strength to strength, with chief executive Russell White telling Insurance Times that the current year-on-year growth rate sits at 35%.

And Peach, which is a trading style of NPA Insurance, is set to see even stronger growth in 2027.

White says: “We will be, at a company level, about £26m by the end of this year, of which Peach will be £12m gross written premium (GWP).

“But next year the balance will shift. Peach will become more than 50% of the insurance company premium across all of NPA Insurance.”

Insurance experience

White has been in the insurance industry for decades, with him deciding to follow his dad – who had been a broker – into the profession.

“I’ve experienced an insurance career that really did start in the most junior department, doing policy admin and processing, taking instructions from the underwriter and turning those into policy documents,” White says.

His first big role came in the early 90s, with him serving as a key account manager at RSA, now known as Intact Insurance.

Following 14 years at the insurer, he joined Allianz as a development manager, with him staying at the firm for four years.

He then returned to Intact, where he spent seven years working in various schemes and trading-related roles.

White then became the director of distribution for regional brokers and specialist schemes at Ageas UK, before joining Peach in 2022.

He first served as commercial distribution and trading director before becoming chief executive in February 2023.

White says that Peach was a “relatively small proportion” of premium of NPA Insurance when he joined in 2022.

“To now be in a position where we are actually going to outstrip the core pharmacy part of the business is really exciting and testament to the brilliant work that’s been done,” he adds.

Key growth drivers

So, what has contributed to Peach’s growth over the last few years?

White says it is a combination of forging new relationships and doing more with the MGAs and brokers that Peach already works with.

“We only work on a delegated basis, we only work with MGAs and brokers and we’ve grown in scale,” White continues.

“We’ve now got 16 live partnerships – three MGAs, an MGU and 12 brokers – and across those partners we write 30 products.

“So, when people work with us, they tend to do two and even more products as well.”

Several deals have been announced in recent times. For example, in April 2026, Peach agreed a multimillion pound capacity arrangement with First Senior Insurance.

The partnership sees Peach provide capacity for First Senior’s core mobility insurance and extended warranty products, distributed through First Senior’s nationwide network of appointed representatives.

Meanwhile, in September 2025, Peach partnered with insurance broker Roots Contractor Insurance (RCI) to provide capacity for its contractor business insurance offering.

Launched in 2020 by parent company the Vestura Group, RCI specialises in cover for professional contractors including professional indemnity (PI), public liability (PL) and employers’ liability (EL) policies.

White says: “[Growth is a] combination of forging new relationships and also – because we’ve worked so well with the people we’ve got – doing more together with them.

“For us, [this] is lovely to see. It’s a real validation of what it is that we try and do and, of course, we set ourselves out to be very different to the typical large corporate insurer.

“We’re small, we’re agile, we make decisions really quickly and unashamedly, we’re good fun to deal with as well.”

Sticking to niche

White says another key driver in growth is the rebrand, which it had adopted following broker feedback.

“It’s brought clarity,” White adds.

“People now know that Peach just does pretty much all things property, casualty, financial lines.

“So, that clarity the rebrand has brought has really helped.”

However, even though growth is strong, White says his firm is “hungry to do more”.

At the same time, he stresses that it is important for the insurer to retain is niche nature that it has become known for.

He continues: “I can’t see us being a firm who manages and takes our current 16 relationships to 600 because if we do that, we lose our own niche special ethos and that exclusivity of Peach.

“We want to keep that central to the business, but we still think there is room to grow quite significantly from where we are and maintain that.”