Única Corretora de Seguros Ltda. (“Única”) is an insurance brokerage firm, founded by Jorge Eduardo de Souza in January 2nd, 1990. Jorge is an experienced executive, who was, at the time, the officer responsible for contracting and managing insurance related products at Agroceres, a leader company in the Brazilian Agribusiness Industry. While at this position, he realized that the approach, as well as the insurance propositions that he received from the insurance companies in the Brazilian market, were, very often, incompatible with the risk profile of the company he was working for.
An emblematic incompatibility was the fact that insurance companies were often unaccustomed to consider the seasonality of the harvesting periods, in order to estimate crop storage risks. Agribusiness companies had to pay for the assurance of the entire crop storage capacity, during the entire year – including the offseason period.
As Jorge could evaluate from this context, at the time, incompatibilities of such nature occurred more often because of the lack of expertise from the professional insurance technicians in Brazil, than because of the corporate standards of risk management, or even the fee limitations in which the structure of insurance products were grounded.
Based on his perception of such incompatibilities, and after having identified this gap, as well as its impacts in the management of Agroceres, Jorge saw an opportunity to innovate. Still at Agroceres, he developed an insurance management model that was very successful. Such model became a benchmark, and, therefore, a reference in the Industry.
Merely bringing up the perception of seasonality to the main insurers in the Industry, allowed significant reductions on the impact of insurance costs in total operation costs in Brazil. From this point on, the relevance of effective and efficient risk management tools became even more evident to the main players engaged in the agribusiness Industry, and this new method to measure risks, according to the seasonality, came to later became the regular way to contract this type of insurance.
In addition to the development of this new insurance product, Jorge developed a risk management program to meet the specific risk demands of the Brazilian agribusiness Industry, which comprehended several risk mitigation measures, not necessarily via insurance.
This is the background that led Única’s team to understand the peculiarities of the daily operations of its clients, digging further than other insurance brokerage companies and insurance companies would, in order to better understand and evaluate the risks derived from: operational cycles; productive processes; types of products and services; supply and distribution logistics; corporate culture; among others. This approach allowed Única to develop unique techniques, methods and processes focused on the identification, assessment, evaluation and definition of corporate risk policies.
The concept behind the new model became an internal policy of Única, applied in the management of all of its clients’ risks, reason why it is applied even to the simplest insurance contracts. More than aim at providing insurance, Única aims at mapping and presenting the best alternatives for tackling risks, including by means of structuring tailored insurance products and services, if necessary to meet to clients’ demands. This has always been Única’s core business.
Única’s first clients were gathered in the agribusiness environment, and the results of the first years of operation were reflected in a significant reduction of insurance premiums disbursed by consumers. Thanks not only to tailored products, but also to an increase in the stability perceived by the insurance companies to attend the segment, grounded, mainly, in the constant qualification of the insured risks, which always guided Única’s approach to risk management.
In its history, Única is accountable for several innovations that contributed for the modernization and growth of the insurance Industry. Nowadays, over 150 companies throughout the country have trusted Única to manage its insurance related risks, involving either properties or human resources. Having worked to manage the risks of so many companies, in so many segments, has allowed Única to achieve significant know how and skills to all of its clients.