Mr. King: Progressive was founded in 1937 in Cleveland, Ohio, and has grown to become the fourth largest auto insurer in the United States. Today we employ 20,000 people and serve the auto insurance needs of about 5 million households across the United States.
TWST: Could you give us a sense of the competitive landscape that you're
in?
Mr. King: There are about 300 companies that compete for auto insurance
business in the US. This is a fragmented, regulated business.
Progressive has become the fourth largest writer in the United States.
We compete to become consumers' first choice for auto insurance by
offering them a combination of competitive prices and superior, 24-hour,
in-person services
TWST: Have you specialized in non standard, high-risk insurance for a
long time?
Mr. King: While we grew up selling insurance to non-standard motorists,
that is those motorists who had been cancelled or rejected by preferred
writers, today we offer our product to all drivers. We are a growth
company and we've learned that about 85% of the auto insurance
marketplace is standard and preferred motorists and we believe that our
pricing, claims handling and information technology skills lend
themselves to competing well in the standard and preferred market. We
broadened our scope to sell auto insurance to all drivers in the early
1990s, and we have found that our pricing skills (honed while pricing
high-risk insurance) do indeed help us to compete effectively in all
segments of the market.
Tickers included in this excerpt: PGR
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