Royal & Sun chief leaves 'on a high'

By KEVIN TAYLOR

Retiring Royal & SunAlliance chief executive Alan Bradley says he will leave New Zealand's largest insurance company in good health.

Bradley, who has been with the company for 40 years and the industry for 46 years, said this week he was leaving a happy man despite a shakeup at the top of the business.

RSA is preparing to float its Australian and New Zealand operations. On Monday the company announced a shakeup at the top, with Bradley retiring.

Michael Wilkins, the managing director in Australia, will become managing director and chief executive in both countries.

The managing director of Royal & SunAlliance New Zealand, Roger Bell, will become chief executive, general insurance, New Zealand.

Bradley leaves the company in the second quarter of this year.

He said he had been very involved in the restructuring, and knew the announcement was coming. "This is entirely planned. It fits with my own personal plans."

Bradley joined RSA in his native Britain as a young man and has been in New Zealand for 22 years. He was appointed chief executive 5 1/2 years ago.

He said RSA had built up a big business in New Zealand, but because it was not listed on the stock exchange it probably had not got as much attention as it otherwise would have.

"But we turn over the thick end of a billion dollars. We have made over $100 million, pre-tax, in each of the last three years.

"We have achieved everything I wanted to achieve.

"We want to blend appropriate skills on both sides of the Tasman going forward, which I thoroughly support. The intention is not to do ... what a lot of companies do badly, and that is to get obsessed by centralising everything.

"If there's one lesson I've learned in 46 years, the customer wants local service."

RSA was on the ground all over the country, so it could give local service and handle claims locally. "None of that's going to change, because Mike Wilkins agrees entirely with me that we must be customer focused."

For most staff, and customers, it would be business as usual.

Bradley said his role over the next few months would be to help with the transition.

"New Zealand has produced the best return on capital in the group for many years, and last year was another first-rate year. So I go out on a high."

The management changes take effect from Monday.