Kentaro Aims for Strong Start in the Commercial Insurance Broking Sector

Two Leeds-based commercial insurance brokers, with a combined total of 41 years’ service for their former employer, have taken the decision to start up their own brokerage.

Dean Fletcher and Zahid Taj are both brokers well known in the Leeds area, having been former employees of Schofield Insurance Brokers, where Dean headed up the sales division.

Although Schofield Insurance Brokers was bought out three years ago, the broking duo were led to believe it would be able to retain its name and identity.  Having learned it would now be subjected to a rebrand, they decided the time was right to start their own business.

This opportunity was presented to them through Dean’s long-standing friendship with another Leeds broker.  He and Paul Coates, a director of award-winning McCarron Coates in Morley, both went to the same primary school and have been firm friends since that time. Their parents still live doors away from each other and although the pair have never worked together, they have taken a similar pathway through the insurance world. Paul is destined to be an usher at Dean’s wedding, later this year.

McCarron Coates’s growth has been impressive and the business was in a position to offer Dean and Taj the opportunity to start up on their own, using support services provided by McCarron Coates.

Dean and Taj leapt at the chance, with the pair also having a strong relationship with the two other McCarron Coates directors, Ian McCarron and Luigi Maggio.

As a result, they have been able to launch their new brokerage, which they have named Kentaro.  This is an ancient Japanese word that embodies strength and responsibility, the qualities of insurance.  

The business is headquartered in Horsforth but will work with clients nationwide. It has an active referral network amongst accountants and solicitors and will be building on that through a proactive outbound sales drive. 

The type of risks handled will dovetail perfectly with those of McCarron Coates.  Whilst Kentaro will focus, in the main, on retail and wholesale, property, motor trade, construction and hospitality, McCarron Coates will continue to concentrate on fleet transport, scaffolding, roofing and manufacturing.

Father of three Dean is delighted to be able to realize a dream of working with his friend Paul, with the pair believing it has long been written in the stars.  He is also proud to see his 18-year-old daughter following in his footsteps and starting her own apprenticeship with an insurance company.

Whilst family life keeps Dean, and father of two, Taj, busy and both are avid football fans, even donning football boots to play on the field themselves at times, they will both be dedicated to giving Kentaro an excellent start. 

“I now have the opportunity to work closely with my childhood friend and it’s a dream come true.  Taj and I are thrilled to be able to launch our own brokerage with McCarron Coates’s support and to be in a position to continue to deliver personalised insurance service to clients, backed by not just a premium but a real relationship and understanding of their businesses.”

Kentaro can be contacted on 07789 274696 or 07525 481234 or info@kentaro.co.uk

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Editors notes

McCarron Coates is an award-winning insurance broker, based in Morley, Leeds, which is a specialist in fleet transport insurance and other niche areas such as roofing, scaffolding and woodworking insurance. It also supplies many other types of commercial insurance policies and risk management services, to clients nationwide and is highly respected as an industry thought-leader, within its individual spheres of influence.