Mr. Brown: Brown & Brown was founded in Daytona Beach, Florida, in 1939 and grew as a small, private insurance agency until roughly 1980 when our Chairman, Hyatt Brown, got out of the Florida legislature. From 1980 to 1993, the firm grew rapidly from roughly 2 million of revenue to 35 million of revenue in that 13- year span. During that period, about 70% of that growth was internally generated and about 30% by acquisition. In 1993, Brown & Brown combined via a merger transaction with a firm called Poe & Associates, which was a public company, and the name of the public company was changed to Poe & Brown for a period of six years. We operated until 1999 as Poe & Brown; then the name was changed back to the name of the older of the two firms, Brown & Brown. Last year, we ended the year at 959 million in revenue; of which 60% of our business is retail insurance, 19% is wholesale insurance, 18% is national insurance programs, and the remainder is services.
TWST: What have been the principal drivers of the company's success, both over
the long term and in recent years?
Mr. Brown: A very disciplined approach and focus on internal growth and
acquisitions, very simply put.
Tickers included in this excerpt: BRO
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