2014 - The Story.

Its hard to think that a year has gone past!! All the plans at the start of the year, the ideas and clear thinking...... That was mid January and now its the end of December! I know its said often but time really flies, this year in particular. Its a year that was so busy it happened in a blink. Don't know how it was for you but for us we never sat still.

So time to do a little bit of reflecting on what went on in 2014.

Whilst we were extremely busy we were fortunate that our region did not have as big an issue with natural disasters as previous years. When we came back from holiday in January we still had over 10% of our entire client base working through Hail Storm claims from the November events in Tamworth, Coffs Harbour, Port Macquarie and Taree. These were extremely destructive and at the time of writing we are still working our way through the final phase of these claims.

January saw Perth suffer Bushfires and tragically loss one soul and 55 homes. Bushfire also ripped through 30 homes in Victoria in early February.

Cyclone season again was a quieter one than normal but it finished with a bang as Cyclone Ita made landfall in April. Whilst a number of spot storms occurred no major event hit our shores until the Hail Storm in Brisbane in late November. This was one of the worst seen in recent years and has insurable losses of over $1 Billion. A quiet year but finished with a sizable storm.

For us personally on a local level we had a busy year minus much of the large storm and fire events that occurred in the early part. Our youngest daughter Jasmine took her first step into the big world by starting school. Jazzy took to school like a duck to water and became a favourite in her class and with her teachers. (and the little boys) What this did for us was provide a second set of hands in the office. Nikki started on a permanent basis in February helping run the Taree office with back room support and Green Slips for walk off the street customers. This freed us up to spend more time on the road and interact with our clients. This led to opportunities that we didn't have before and as the year went on Nikki became much more confident in her role.

It may not seem much but the work on marketing, CTP, policy updating and schedules took enourmous work load off me and it was greatly appreciated. Nik often thought she wasn't doing much but reality was very different. My thanks to Nik for her work and continual support of the business.

In April we took to studying. Completion of Diploma studies had been on the back burner for many years but an opportunity arose to complete the formal studies and get the piece of paper to frame on the wall. I did a 3 day workshop in Sydney and then completed in 6 weeks what should have taken 12 months. It was a very fulfilling experience and above all proved that we were on the right track and just needed to refine some of our documents to go to the next step. Once completed we were thrilled to learn that the results were some of the best the marker had ever seen. An award for NIBA student of the month followed and potentially Student of the year. Wont here if we reach this level until end of the financial year but we have our fingers crossed.

In Sports land we had the FIFA World Cup which disrupted sleep patterns for a month. This was on the back of the Tour De France so a torrid couple of month sleep wise occurred. For us we continued our involvement in growing Australian Rules Football in The Manning Great Lakes region. We assisted with coaching a team of 5 years olds - The Joeys - this year which turned out to be an experience. The kids were fantastic and it was so pleasing to show them the skills that I took for granted growing up in Victoria. For any Victorian youngster you just pick the skills up so introducing this to Rugby League mad kids was challenging but very rewarding. We also provided sponsorship to the centre and presented a team award at their end of season ceremony.

Okay but let's be honest only one thing mattered all year and that was my mighty Hawks went back to back. Growing up as a hawks fan since I was about 4 years old and living through their glory years of the 80's I never thought I'd experience anything like it again. But the boys did me proud and went back to back in the year we celebrated the silver jubilee of the last back to back flags. It also proved many people wrong who jumped on the Sydney Swans band wagon. We knew from the outset of Grand Final day that Hawthorn could potentially blow them off the park and we were right. When Sydney won a flag in 2012 one of their fans said "A champion team will always beat a team of champions." In 2014 2013 and 2014 a truer comment could not be found. Life after Buddy is Boootiful!!

This year we also stepped up our community and charitable involvement. Aside from sponsorship of Taree AFL Auskick Centre we also assisted with The Valla VW Spectacular that is a major tourist event in The Nambucca Valley. We also provided support to events hosted by Destiny Rescue, Taree West Public School and Manning Valley Business Chamber.

One of our annual support programmes is now via Compassion Australia. We sponsor 2 children in rural Thailand and hope to assist in bringing them education and opportunities in their lives and those of their village.

This is a support programme we are very passionate about and we encourage you to become involved. Head to https://www.compassion.com.au/ for more details.


Our big news this year was the acquisition of Bowen Insurance Brokers on October 1st. We had a long term dialogue with The Bowens and this finally came to fruition this year. This has taken our business to the next level and provided us with the opportunity to employ additional people to assist in smoothing out the workload. It also opened us up to the business and agricultural sector of the Upper Hunter and Barrington regions which fitted in perfectly with our long term business planning.

A presence west of the Pacific Highway has long been our goal and we have done so on a smaller scale, but to now have a strong client base in the area has given us the boost we were looking for. We have already met and dealt with a number of our new clients through Stroud, Dungog and Gloucester and look forward to getting more involved with them in the new year. We are now members of Dungog Business Chamber and will be doing some things in Gloucester as well. The region has enjoyed the way we do business and we hope that some new long term relationships are forged with this new venture.

So alot of achievement and boxes ticked behind the scenes this year. It made for a busy busy time but all pointing towards a bigger 2015 with more efficiencies and a greater presence in the region.

We pride ourselves on being a family and community minded company. So from our family to your we thank you for your ongoing support of IAA Mid North Coast. Have a Merry Christmas and enjoy some precious family time over the season.



We lost some fine people in Australia unexpectedly this year in particular in recent months with Phillip Hughes and the tragic events in Martin Place. It makes you realise how fragile our hold on life is and to make the most of those times with the people we love. Have fantastic break, we look forward to partnering with you once more in 2015 and beyond.

Jeremy Thornton and Family.