Keystone - a byword for success
December 30, 2009After graduating from Dundalk Institute of Technology with a Business Degree, Anthony Woods worked in the insurance industry for a number of years before establishing Keystone Insurance in 2006.
Keystone Insurance has gone from strength to strength in the intervening years. With offices at Park Street, Dundalk and Waring Street, Belfast, the company specialises in all insurance packages for the business community and prides itself on being the only Irish broker to cover the whole island of Ireland.
So what makes Keystone Insurance attractive to a potential client? Woods, the company's founder and managing director, explains: "The key is that we are specialists in business insurance. The whole team deals exclusively with business insurance & that's where our expertise lies! If it's not business insurance, we're not interested! We deal in all different classes of business insurance so whether you're a contractor, shopkeeper, office or factory manager we can insure your business."
Woods feels that concentrating on one area of the insurance industry has made his company all the more capable of catering for the needs of its clients. "Between all the staff here we have around 100 years of experience in the business insurance sector, so we're able to get the best possible solutions for your business. We have customers in every county in Ireland and we have a good relationship with all the business insurers too which gives us access to exclusive schemes and rates. Our customers feel it's better to deal with specialist business insurance brokers as they know that they are dealing with an insurance professional with an understanding of the class of business in question rather than a 'jack of all trades' who may not have much experience with the 'ins and outs' of business insurance."
As a dyed-in-the-wool Louthman, Anthony was happy to base the company in Dundalk, where it moved to a new headquarters at Park Street earlier this year. However, the decision owes as much to commercial prudence as it does to any sentimentality. "Dundalk is a good base for our business," he says. "There is a lot of business and industry in the town while as we're the only broker to offer an all-Ireland service it is convenient for 'cross border trade'.
"The transport links of Dundalk are excellent and our location on Park Street means we are easily located by anyone travelling to meet us from the M1 motorway or the train station. As well as the main office in Dundalk, where we've recently moved into a new office in a prime position in the centre of the town, we opened a second office in Belfast last year and things have gone fairly well up there too."
If it's true that those who stand still are lost, then it pays to keep one's eyes open for opportunities elsewhere, and Anthony makes no secret of his ambition to expand the business.
"As we are a specialist insurance broker it's easier for us to enter a niche marketplace and corner this area of the market. For example, we developed an insurance scheme for wind farms in 2007 and as a result we now insure a significant number of wind farms across Ireland. We even insured a wind farm in Britain, and we'll look at expanding into that market. In time we hope to set up an office in Britain to deal with all classes of business insurance."
The ongoing economic downturn has affected every aspect of the country, and the insurance sector has not escaped. Nevertheless, Woods insists that all at Keystone are ready to face the challenge head on.
"There's very few businesses that haven't been affected one way or another," he acknowledges, "but the way things are at the minute, it's a case of 'go hard or go home'. Here at Keystone, we've grown and expanded over the past few years and we'll keep that growing into the future. Every company has their ups and downs and trading conditions at the minute are challenging but Keystone has consistently grown since 2006 and we will keep growing and expanding and providing local employment along the way."
In addition to his success in the business sphere, Anthony is a member of the Naomh Malachi club, carrying on a longstanding family tradition. Several of the clan played important roles in the history of the Courtbane club, as he explains: "I think my father Tony scored the first point in the history of the club back in the 60s. My uncle Declan is a selector with the team at the moment, another uncle Damien is a former Naomh Malachi chairman, Dermot was a well-known referee in the county. Other uncles Frank, Brendan and Micheál all played and my aunt Lily Dowdall, whose maiden name was Woods, played for years with the Louth ladies."
His own playing career saw him help Naomh Malachi to the Junior 2A Championship in September 2008, when they edged out Cooley Kickhams 'A' in a thrilling final.
He was also on the panel for the 2009 Intermediate Football Championship success. That game, which took place at Cluskey Park in Dromiskin, finished in high drama with Na Piarsaigh awarded an injury time penalty at a time when Naomh Malachi's lead stood at a precarious two points. The penalty was blazed over the bar and the IFC title went to Courtbane for the third time since 2002. Anthony takes up the story: "It was deep into injury time, there was a scramble and there was talk that the ball might have crossed the line although our lads didn't think it did. Anyway, the ref blew for a penalty, it was the last kick of the game and the pressure seemed to get to the penalty taker. You wouldn't wish that kick on anyone and for his sake I hope he gets the chance to put things right in next years final! It was a very dramatic finish and it's definitely not a nice way to lose a game but overall I think it was a fair result in the end."
For more information on Keystone Insurance, visit www.keystone.ie. Tweet
