‘There are still people who think we’re just a little office above a chip shop in Byker,’ Jeff Winn says, sitting in one of three large sites (soon to be four) which house Winn Group.

The company has grown exponentially, with turnover and profit doubling year on year, and staff numbers increasing by more than 100 (in the week I visited another 16 new starters were being inducted). The group is not just among the biggest private sector employers in the north-east, but by income alone would rank among the top 30 firms in the legal sector. The burgeoning call centre is staffed 24/7 and handlers take around 16,000 calls a month. The perception of a small operation in a suburb of Newcastle is way off the mark.

A business model which depends on mass processing of claims by a team of largely unqualified staff (of the 630 workers, around 60 are solicitors) can give rise to condescension from some in the profession. But Winn’s managers bristle at the suggestion they compromise on service or quality, pointing to a 4.8 rating on Trustpilot and 32 graduates on training contracts or doing the SQE.

‘We have a lot of commercial firms in Newcastle trying to recruit from us because our people have such a good grounding,’ says Winn.

What is extraordinary about the group’s rise is that it comes at a difficult time for the claims sector. Government reforms, and the Covid-19 lockdown, sent competitors running for the exit doors.

‘We have always grown steadily but there are a few things that have kicked in at the same time,’ adds Winn. ‘We have nailed the senior management team, which is very tight and able to react quickly. The senior board has four people and decisions are implemented within seven days.’

Private equity invested in the firm in 2013. ‘To start with they sometimes got in the way as they wanted to sign everything off,’ Winn recalls. ‘After that, and the loss of a £4m account, they left us alone. Because we have beaten every target they have put to us there is a trust – that ability to do what management do is absolutely key.

‘We have sharpened up the processes so everything is done more efficiently, and volumes have given us a scale to spend more on IT.’

There are other differentiating factors. Winn Group covers the whole accident management spectrum, from credit hire and repairs to personal injury. The PI business is important, but after the whiplash reforms it is a means to a more lucrative end – credit hire, left untouched by the government.

Crucially, the group has negotiated fixed charges with insurers – effectively dictating terms on credit hire, knowing this is a cheaper alternative to litigation. More than half the cases that come in are settled in this way, with the insurers (in some cases) grudgingly accepting this as their best option. Winn himself describes the group now as an ‘insurance services provider’.

Chris Birkett, group chief executive, believes this arrangement would have been impossible five years ago, but the dynamic has changed. ‘We are accepted in the insurance world,’ he said. ‘They don’t like paying our bills but some of them appreciate they pay a lot less by not fighting it. Once we could prove insurers were much better off not going the court route it was better.’

As a former legal aid solicitor who saw an opportunity to cash in on the personal injury boom of the 2000s, Winn is unlike most other law firm owners. An imposing six foot-plus, he was once dubbed the best-paid lawyer in the country. He admits the company sought private equity investment when he could no longer pump money into the business due to an expensive divorce. He works three days a week to allow him time with his six-month-old and goes away over the winter for several weeks at a time to seek out sunshine.

He still has unfinished business before retirement, however. The private equity investment of the Souter Charitable Trust is unlikely to match the company’s growth, and a search will eventually begin for a bigger investor. The group’s wills and probate division will also be expanded and the aim is for a similar ‘one-stop shop’, from insurance to funeral to probate, to the claims side. This juggernaut shows few signs of slowing down.