Generali Deutschland Group
  • Merging the exclusive sales organization of Generali Versicherungen, Volksfürsorge AG and independent sales networks under a uniform umbrella with the Generali brand
  • Clear bundling of competencies for more service quality and sales power to the benefit of the customer
  • €30 million annual cost savings expected from the merger

Cologne/Munich - The management boards of Generali Deutschland Holding, Cologne, and Generali Versicherungen, Munich, intend to merge the sales networks of the Munich-based insurer into one distribution company. It is planned to establish a distribution company under the Generali brand roof for this purpose. The sales brand Volksfürsorge will be replaced in favour of a clear focus on the Generali brand.

"The continuing low-interest environment, the growing regulatory requirements as well as increasingly price-sensitive customers have for quite a while been raising the pressure for change in the entire insurance sector", states Dietmar Meister, CEO of Generali Deutschland Holding. "Groups and companies such as Generali Versicherungen with a good positioning in the market have to anticipate today what organizational structure is needed for the market requirements of tomorrow in order to defend their top positions against the competitors successfully."

The objective is to integrate both sales networks of Generali Versicherungen - the Generali exclusive sales organization (exclusive agents according to Section 84 HGB (Commercial Code) and Volksfürsorge AG (employed insurance agents according to Section 59 HGB) - as well as the independent sales networks (brokers, banks and financial sales) in the new distribution organization.

"In the new organization we will bundle the power and know-how of our traditional and successful sales networks", explains Winfried Spies, CEO of Generali Versicherungen. "The objective is a continuous improvement of the consulting services provided to our customers even under more difficult conditions. To achieve this, we rely on the standardization of the consultation and support approach of our sales networks as well as on homogenous and efficient structures. In addition, we thereby reduce complexity, save costs and deliver tailor-made insurance consultation from a single source. With these proposed changes we ensure that our positioning in terms of sales is sustainable, stable and fit to cope with the challenges of the future even under changed framework conditions", continues Spies.

Clear focus on customer orientation
For Generali Versicherungen, the foundation of a separate distribution company is the next step in a continuous development of the organization towards an even higher level of customer orientation. The company has been pursuing this objective since the merger with Volksfürsorge at the beginning of 2009. Despite increasing market requirements and difficult framework conditions, the Munich-based insurer was able to maintain its market position among the five largest primary insurers in Germany in the last years. With EUR 6.14 billion gross premiums written in 2013, the company exceeded the previous-year result (EUR 5.74 billion). "This is the result of our continuous optimization of processes and structures but also our steadily developed service orientation", said Spies. "The new organization will make the sales network even stronger and more competitive on the market and enable Generali Versicherungen to win further market share."

Modern infrastructure and effective support structures
Uniform instruments for customer consultation, distribution control and quality assurance will be used in the planned distribution company. Equivalent paths for personal development of employed and self-employed agents ensure equal opportunities and a uniform quality level of consultation under a unified leadership. The Generali Deutschland Group intends to make considerable investments with respect to implementation of the uniform consultation approach of the Generali distribution company. The regional presence of the Generali sales networks will be further developed. According to preliminary estimates, the cost savings expected to be achieved by optimized structures and processes amount to approx. € 30 million p.a. The envisaged structure therefore is also an answer to the increasingly intense public discussion concerning the reduction of distribution costs.

Strengthening the Generali brand
The new distribution company will operate under the Generali brand across the German market, which also ranks among the leading insurance brands at international level. The bundling of presence and distribution strength under one brand helps anchor the products and services of the company more strongly in the customers' awareness. "The common identification of all salespeople within the strong Generali brand is a matter of importance to us", explains Bernd Felske, chief sales officer of Generali Versicherungen, head of the integration project and designated CEO of the new distribution company. "A strong brand gives the salespeople access to the customer and contributes to the sense of identity and thus to increased sales."

Personnel changes
Subject to all relevant board approvals, the board of management of the new distribution company will be composed of Bernd Felske as chairman and Rainer Andreas Brand and Dr. Matthias Salge as members. The divisional directors Jörn Breyer, Stefan Kos and Axel Olaf Engemann will be responsible for the individual sales units. Oliver Brüss, as CEO of Volksfürsorge AG, has successfully supported the organization's strategic reorientation and will, as originally planned in 2013 already, transfer to Dialog Lebensversicherungs-AG on 1 August 2014 and assume the function of CEO there from 1 October 2014. Brüss is the successor of CEO Rüdiger R. Burchardi, who joined the group in 1997 and will resign from the company for reasons of age.

All planned changes will be substantiated in the coming months. Implementation of measures is expected to begin in the first half-year 2015 once all board approvals have been obtained.

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