A BUSINESS that started as a one-man band and today employs 43 staff is now poised for the next stage of growth.

Kendal-based Talbot Insurance Brokers has become a limited company with two separate businesses.

Talbot Insurance Brokers Limited deals with all forms of home, motor, farm and business insurance, while its sister company Talbot Financial Services Limited handles life insurance, mortgages, pensions and investments.

The firm says the move to incorporation will enable it to gain access to new sources of finance and retain flexibility in the run-up to regulation of the general insurance industry.

“General insurance will be regulated by the Government through the Financial Services Authority at the end of 2004.

“All general insurance will have to be done on that basis, from travel agents right through to national brokers,” said Haydon Munslow, managing director of Talbot Insurance Brokers.

Under the new system, brokers will have to ensure staff dealing with general insurance are trained and tested to maintain standards of service.

It is a far cry from when Peter Talbot set up as an insurance broker in Lowther Street back in 1961.

Today, the firm operates from two modern, computerised sites in the town and has recently recruited six new trainees.

With more than 6,000 clients in Kendal, South Lakeland and increasingly further afield on its books, the two businesses are aiming for further growth in the future.

Howard Cooke is managing director of Talbot Financial Services, while Mike Fishwick is company secretary and director of both companies.

Mr Fishwick said: “In an era where so much is driven by telesales and the internet, we will match up and better what this competition offers while still staying true to Peter’s original philosophy of local face-to-face dealing and always with the personal touch.”