With 81 offices on the way to 1 Alpina
The first year at Alpina was partly about getting to know Rosebeek. With the business, the people, the offices. Created by the merger of Heilbron and Voogd & Voogd in 2021, Alpina Group has some 2,000 employees and 81 offices, 59 of which are in the Netherlands and 22 in Belgium. Although the merger involves only two organizations, it is more complex, Rosebeek explained. "It is a merger of a large amount of companies with many different propositions. We have more than a hundred legal entities." Alpina Group grew strongly in recent years. From more than 151 million euros in sales in 2020 to more than 183 million euros in 2021. Last year, all offices in the Netherlands underwent a name change and are now called Alpina. All sixteen brokerage offices have also carried the Alpina name since September.
New sales structure
To ensure that customers can be served properly segmented, Alpina's sales organization has been overhauled. "For the intermediary, business and private market, different colleagues are now integrally responsible. After all, a private customer has different wishes and needs than a business customer," says Rosebeek. "In addition, we have someone specifically responsible for the online parts of our business," she continues. Those digital services include the former Diks Insurance, Eerdmans, Kingpolis, ITS (Insure to study) and Poliscounter. The whole thing has also undergone a name change and can be found under Alpina.nl.
In the new sales structure, Alpina has combined business non-life insurance with pension and income. Private non-life insurance has been combined with mortgages, brokerage and RegioBank. With this, the company aims to have everything under one roof for both business and private clients. "Private customers like convenience. Moreover, we still have a nice branch network, where the banking sector is actually saying goodbye to many branches. We believe in the combination of personal and digital services."
Name Guardian
Components that have not yet been renamed include Claeren, Uiterwijk Winkel Verzekeringen, Verheul Groep and Voogd & Voogd. What these will be called in the future is currently being studied. "Voogd & Voogd is a powerful name in service provision. About three thousand intermediaries use the platform. Before the merger, Voogd & Voogd was the No. 1 service provider. We want to further improve the platform and together take a good look at the naming," Rosebeek says.
Board changes
Rosebeek also made the acquaintance of two new directors. Sjoerd Laarberg was formerly ceo of Allianz Nederland and succeeded Michael de Nijs. Derk-Jan Stol came from Nationale-Nederlanden, where he was head of group Finance & Reporting. He succeeds Arto Willemsen. Together they form the statutory board. "The cooperation with Sjoerd and with Derk-Jan got off to a good start. The big advantage when you come in from outside is that you have no color in a merged company. You are not from one company or another. You're from Alpina Group," Rosebeek says. "At the same time, it's also nice that in addition to that, with your full board, you still have the knowledge, expertise and know-how from your various business units. That's important for your continuity."
Strategy and expansion
The new board is working on a new strategy. For now, the focus is on the Netherlands and Belgium. Whether the expansion into Germany, for example, which was envisaged at the time, is part of this remains to be seen. Acquisitions could be part of it.
Rosebeek's focus now is on establishing one Alpina. "When you integrate, you often look inward and are busy a lot internally. We are now ready to look outward and really focus on the customer, the prospects, the market, the business and growth."
The entire interview can be read here.
