Business Profile: Lowry Maclean
Even the Wesleyan’s new(ish)granite and glass office building is the result of long-term planning. A previous generation of executives patiently acquired the land, including the site of the old Gaumont cinema, that paved the way for the demolition and rebuilding of its home in what is now Colmore Square.
Hence Lowry’s thumbnail sketch of sensible investment: “Bide your time, don’t buy at the top, which is sadly in the nature of things.
“Never invest in something you don’t understand, like some derivative, and as soon as somebody says ‘that company is going places’ give it a wide berth. It is too late, they’re out of control.”
The Wesleyan’s commitment to a city centre presence has helped the society to recruit “some very fine people”at all levels of the business.
“When you are in the centre you can bring them from all sides of Birmingham and they can go shopping, get their hair cut and buy their food at lunchtime.”
The Wesleyan has acquired a number of worthy businesses over the years and has accommodated them all in Birmingham.
“They are all in one building so you can get your arms around them.”
It’s an interesting mix of conservatism and innovation, the Wesleyan.
As its chairman says: “There are people around, these wildcats, that go off and grow much too fast and use other people’s assets. And then there are companies that stand in the middle of the road and get squashed.
“I felt at the Wesleyan in those early days there were a few people trying to press out 78 rpm gramophone records when the world had moved on to long-players. In fact some people were on tape and there was a whole new generation going digital.
“Boy, if you don’t pick up those signals early you are going to be squashed.
“But small is beautiful. Being boring is beautiful to. Like David versus Goliath, we have outperformed in the tables the big household names. I think small companies are very nimble, very alert and there is not much evidence that big companies are all that more cost effective.
“Big companies can do something we can’t do: they can go global, they can go to China, India, Europe. But we have no aspirations at this time to do anything outside the UK.
“The board has always been low risk. One a scale of zero to ten, ten being going wild, we have always been five, occasionally we have touched 5.5.”
The Wesleyan is unique among life offices in that it is allowed to trade by a private Act of Parliament first passed 1866 and updated periodically.
“In our Act it says we start our board meetings with silent prayer, which we do. I assume my colleagues are praying for the success of the business.
“But it is nice. The Wesleyan is trying to combine the best of the past with very high-tech modern things that preserve some of the provenance and history which other Birmingham companies have, but sometimes they forget it. They leave Birmingham.
“We are coming up for 170 years but having a mind set that embraces and makes you ready for change is very important.
“You have to observe the things coming at you. We have been through the Industrial Revolution, two world wars, the Great Depression, huge shifts in market demands and technology and increased pressure from regulation.
“Though all that we have had to navigate for survival and also deliver what the policyholders need.
“Its gone from bicycle clips, in the days when its insurance agents cycled on their rounds, to cars, from 82 branch offices around the country to laptops and working from home. A huge transformation.”
Lowry insists he hasn’t thought too much about what he will do in retirement.
But he will spend more time with his family and be on hand should there be something more for him to do at the Wesleyan “around the fringes”.
He also plans to stay on as chairman of the Aston Reinvestment Trust “as long as they want me”.
