Having said “hello” to the Irish market from mid-February with the launch of the Liberty Insurance brand, the US company yesterday launched its first new product line since taking over the old Quinn business in the Republic.
It is called Better Car Replacement and is described as a “simple” product by Liberty’s Irish chief Pat O’Brien.
“The intent is that if you’re involved in an accident and your car is written off, we’ll replace it with a car that is one year younger and with 15,000 less kilometres on the clock. It’s something we think will go down well with consumers.”
The replacement will actually be in the form of a cash payment rather than a new car. “So if you crash a 2008 Volkswagen Passat with 70,000 kilometres on it, that’s worth roughly about €10,000, we’d replace it with the value of a 2009 Passat with 55,000 kilometres on it, which is roughly worth €12,000. So you’re getting an extra €2,000 towards the value of your new car.”
It will be a standard part of all comprehensive insurance policies.
Is this an attempt to present Liberty as a more cuddly insurer than the competition?
“We are trying to differentiate ourselves as being a little different from the rest of the market. I’m not sure I’d use the word ‘cuddly’, but we’re going to provide quality products and we’re going to do that at a competitive price.”
O’Brien said other new products will be brought to market by Liberty this year.
“We’ll have a product coming on stream in June or July in the home area and then we’ll look to make other changes to our motor products around September/ October time. The plan is that every quarter we’ll bring something new to the market.”
He said business had perked up since the multimillion euro rebrand. “We’ve seen a good uptick in business over the last six weeks, but we’re hoping to see a lot more with the launch of this product.”
For now, Liberty remains a direct insurer, but O’Brien said it will be selling via brokers from the second half of this year.
O’Brien said Liberty would also “make a decision in Q3” on whether or not to buy the Quinn Insurance business in the UK from the administrator, Grant Thornton.
