Aston Lark Acquires Sennocke International Insurance Services and Build-Zone Survey Services

On 23 February 2021, Goldman Sachs-backed chartered insurance broker Aston Lark announced that it had bought two businesses, Sennocke and Build-Zone Survey Services, as part of its continuing expansion.

Sennocke, founded in 1990 and based in Sevenoaks, Kent, runs two specialist brands. Self-Build Zone is billed as the top name in self-build cover, supplying site insurance and structural warranties for new builds, renovations, extensions and conversions, and is the sole provider of self-builders' site insurance and ten-year structural warranty for the NHBC. Build-Zone, created in 2003 as a 10-year structural warranty provider, offers some of the biggest latent defects insurance capacity available. Sennocke also works as a general insurance broker for businesses and private clients. Build-Zone Survey Services supplies the technical surveying and risk management that supports their underwriting.

Aston Lark's chief executive, Peter Blanc, welcomed the teams, saying that Aston Lark had used Build-Zone as a customer and expected the business to become a strong force in construction insurance; the group already owned Renovation Plan. Sennocke's managing director, Paul Kempton, said joining the group would take the businesses to the next level.

Aston Lark described itself at the time as having over 1,000 employees in more than 35 offices across Britain and Ireland, with gross written premium above £500m.

Source: Build-Zone, originally published on The Landsite (25 February 2021)