Commercial Insurance Broker Reviews
Clients across the North East tell us what working with Park is actually like, and this page is a selection of it in their own words. A furniture distributor, a transport company, a flooring contractor, a charity, a motor repairer and a window manufacturer, in Durham, Darlington, Sunderland, County Durham and Middlesbrough. We publish them by sector and town rather than by company name, and where a quote runs long we have taken whole sentences out of it. Nothing has been reworded, nothing has been tidied up, and not one word of what follows was written by us. They are better evidence of what an account with Park is like than anything else on this site.
Supplied, Not Written
These are our clients’ own words, sent to us in writing. They were not drafted for them, they were not approved by us before they were sent, and nobody was told what to mention. We have taken whole sentences out of two of the longer ones to keep the page readable; we have not rewritten a single line, and we would not.
They are published by sector and location rather than by company name. A business insurance programme says a good deal about how a company is set up, what it owns and where it is exposed, so naming our clients alongside a description of their cover is not something we do as a matter of course. The sector and the town are theirs and are published with their agreement; everything that would identify the company is deliberately left out, and we would do the same for yours.
What you will not find here is a star rating or a satisfaction percentage. We hold no scores, we have run no survey, and a number we invented would be worth less than the paragraphs below. For the same reason there is no count of how many clients we asked, or how many said yes, and no claim about what proportion of our book renews with us each year.
Four things come up again and again, and they are the four the rest of this site claims we do: we take the time to understand how the business actually runs, we keep the cover moving when the business changes, we handle the claim ourselves, and somebody answers the phone. Those are our claims. The paragraphs below are somebody else making them.
Everything else on this site is us describing our own work. Who we are, how we work and how we handle a claim are all written by us about ourselves, which is what you would expect and exactly why it can only prove so much. This is the one page where somebody else is doing the talking.
In Their Own Words
The first three, from a furniture distributor in Durham, a transport company in Durham and a flooring contractor in Darlington. Paula Hunter is the account executive named in two of them.
We need an insurer who understands how complex our business is, and Park Commercial Insurance does. Between our employees, install team, fleet, goods in transit and warehouse cover, there’s a lot to get right, and Paula and the team have always got it right.
Paula takes the time to understand how we operate day to day in each division, so the cover she recommends fits the risks we actually face rather than a generic package. When we’ve added vehicles, changed premises, taken on new contracts, the team has updated our policy quickly, so we’re never left exposed.
I’d recommend Park Commercial Insurance to any business looking for reliable cover and people who know what they’re doing.
We have a long-standing relationship with Park Commercial. After testing the market for many years, we know that Park gives it 100% and always put us first. The advice, professionalism and help they provide is excellent. Risk management and speedy claims service is vital to our business which is another reason we recommend Park. I can sleep at night knowing they understand my business making sure every aspect is covered should the worst happen.
Park Commercial Insurance has handled our renewal for the last three years and has done a fantastic job every time.
Paula has an excellent understanding of the insurance our business needs and always takes the time to learn what has changed for us each year, so our cover keeps pace with the business. The wider team is just as helpful and always available when we have a question or need to adjust our policy.
We would highly recommend Park Commercial Insurance.
Three different businesses, and the same thing in each: somebody at Park took the time to learn how the place actually runs before recommending anything. That is not a courtesy, it is the work. A programme built on an assumption about a business is the one that produces an argument at a claim, and the argument is always about something nobody asked at the start.
Four Things, Repeatedly
The word that recurs is “understand”, and it is the one we would have chosen. Five of the six use it or something close to it, and they use it about their own operation rather than about insurance. That is the distinction we work to: an insurance programme is a description of a business, and a description that is out of date or approximate is the one that fails when it is tested.
The second thing they name is pace. Vehicles added, premises changed, contracts taken on, a renewal that has to keep up with a year of trading. None of those feels like an insurance event at the time, which is exactly why they get missed. Our account handlers sit alongside the executives rather than in a separate processing team, so a change can be made the week it happens rather than waiting for the next renewal to catch up with it. That is an arrangement rather than a promise, and it is the reason the same point appears in three of these six.
The third is claims, and only one of them had to use us for one. That is the honest position: a testimonial about claims handling is rarer than a testimonial about service, because most clients in any given year do not have a serious loss. The one who does mentions risk management and speed in the same sentence, which is how we would put it too, and our claims service is run in house for that reason.
The fourth is simply that somebody answers. Three of the six say it in different words, and one of them says he is always able to speak to the account executive or the handler who know his businesses. It reads as a small thing next to the technical work, and it is the most common single reason a client tells us they left their last broker. Nobody moves because of a wording clause. They move because three emails went unanswered in the week something needed deciding.
What none of them says is that we were the cheapest. Nobody has written to us about price, which is not an argument that price does not matter. It is an observation that when a client sits down to write about a broker unprompted, the thing they reach for is whether the cover was right and whether somebody picked up.
Those four are the whole of what this firm sells, and not one of them is a price. If they are not what you want from a broker, the rest of this site will not persuade you either.
In Their Own Words
The other three, from a charity in Sunderland, a motor repairer in County Durham and a window manufacturer in Middlesbrough. The last of the three names Paula Hunter as well, which makes three of the six.
Working with Park Commercial has been a positive experience. From day one, their team has gone above and beyond to provide us with exceptional service, offering expert advice tailored to our specific needs. Their continued support has been invaluable, and their commitment to excellence is clear in every interaction. We look forward to continuing our partnership with them for years to come, knowing we can rely on their professionalism and expertise every step of the way. I would recommend other Charities check out Park Commercial.
I have a long-standing relationship with Park Commercial who understand my business insurance needs. They are very professional and always on hand when we need them. I arrange insurance for all my businesses with Park and highly recommend their services and I’m always able to speak to my account executive or handler who know my businesses very well as they have dealt with them for years.
We have been extremely impressed with the service provided by Park Commercial Insurance.
Paula and the team have been professional, knowledgeable, and always willing to go the extra mile to ensure our insurance requirements are met. All communication is excellent, with queries dealt with promptly and efficiently, the team consistently provide clear advice tailored to our business. Their attention to detail and proactive approach give us confidence that we have the right cover in place at all times.
Their reliability, expertise, and exceptional customer service make them a pleasure to work with, and we would not hesitate to recommend them to other businesses looking for a trusted insurance company.
Six businesses, six sectors, five towns, and not one of them mentions price. A testimonial on a broker’s own website should never be the whole of your decision, which is why the section below sets out the things about Park you can check for yourself, without asking us and without taking a word of this on trust.
Check It Yourself
A testimonial is easy to collect and easy to stage. These four are published already and you can check all of them without speaking to us.
Park Commercial Ltd is authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority, firm reference number 498255, and the FCA register is public. It will tell you what we may do and since when. It is a permission to operate rather than a quality mark, and anybody presenting it as an award is telling you something.
Claims at Park are handled in house by Colin Thompson, our Claims Manager, who has been in the role for over eighteen years. He is on this site with a direct dial, as is everyone else. An outsourced claims line and a named colleague down the corridor are different products, and the difference shows on your worst day.
We place directly with Aviva, Intact, AXA, Allianz and Zurich, and reach the wider market through our membership of Bravo Networks. Every broker has a boundary somewhere. One that describes its boundary plainly is easier to work with than one implying it can place anything, and you find out which you have at renewal.
Every page on this site carries the people who would look after the account, with job titles, direct dials and email addresses rather than a switchboard and a reference number. You can see who you would be dealing with before speaking to anybody, and the whole team is published the same way, support staff included.
None of those four requires you to ask us anything, which is the point of putting them on this page rather than into a sales conversation. The testimonials above are other people’s word for it; these four you can check yourself. What we are not going to do is put a number on any of it. There is no rating, no satisfaction score and no renewal percentage anywhere on this site, because we hold none of them, and a figure we assembled ourselves would belong in exactly the same category as a testimonial we wrote ourselves.
The People Named Above
Paula Hunter is named in three of the six, so she is the obvious place to start. The other three are the people a client actually deals with between renewals, which is where most of a broking relationship is spent.
Paula Hunter has been involved in the insurance industry for over thirty years, looks after a full range of commercial clients and works closely with the team on renewals and new client acquisition. Three of the testimonials on this page name her, and two of them describe the same thing: that she learns how the business runs before recommending anything. Helen Snowdon has a wealth of experience in insurance broking, working in the industry for over forty years, and provides internal support to Paula, which is the half of the arrangement that makes a same-week change possible.
Ian Cooke is our Operations Director with 34 years of industry experience, leads our internal team and looks after the day-to-day operations of the business, including compliance. He is here because responsiveness is a structural question rather than a personal one. Colin Thompson is our Claims Manager with over eighteen years in the role, and the transport company above names claims service as a reason it stays with Park; claims are handled in house from the first call. The rest of the team is on our team page.
Speak to Us
The quickest route is a conversation about what you have now. Tell us what the business does and when the cover is due, and one of our advisers will come back to you within one working day to arrange a time that suits. There is no fee for the review and no obligation at the end of it, whatever we find. If it turns out we cannot improve on the cover you already have, we will tell you that as well. It is a shorter conversation and an honest one, and it happens often enough that it is worth saying so plainly here.
Common Questions
Yes. All six arrived by email to Park in October 2026, written by clients we asked to put something in writing. We have published them by sector and town rather than by company name, and we have removed whole sentences from two of the longer ones to keep the page readable. Nothing has been reworded or written by us. Where a quote runs long we have removed whole sentences rather than editing inside one, so what you read is a shorter version of what the client wrote and never a rephrased one.
Because an insurance programme describes a business. Naming a company alongside what it insures says something about its premises, its fleet, its stock and where it is exposed, and that is not ours to publish as a matter of routine. The sector and the town are enough for you to judge whether the business is anything like yours, which is the only part that matters when you are reading somebody else's testimonial.
Because we do not have one. We have not run a satisfaction survey, we hold no scores, and a rating we assembled ourselves would mean nothing. For the same reason there is no percentage, no client count and no claim about how many of our clients renew. If we ever publish a figure of that kind, the method behind it will be published in the same place, because a number without a method is decoration. What is on this page instead is six people describing what the service is actually like.
The six on this page cover distribution and installation, transport, flooring contracting, the charity sector, motor trade and manufacturing, which is a fair cross-section of the book but nothing like all of it. We also handle construction, engineering, retail and wholesale, warehousing, property owners, care providers and the licensed trade, and each has its own page on this site setting out what the cover actually has to do. If your sector is not listed anywhere, ring us and ask rather than assuming.
Not published ones. A case study describes a specific claim or a specific placement, and doing that properly means either naming a client or anonymising the detail so heavily that the story stops being evidence. Park has decided not to publish them. The testimonials on this page are what we have instead. They are narrower than a case study would be, and they have at least been written by the clients rather than by us, which a case study would not have been.
Nothing, if you only have our word for it, which is exactly why this page is other people's words rather than ours. The test is not the claim, it is whether somebody will stand behind it when asked. Six clients have put it in writing without being told what to say, and the four things above can be checked without asking us at all. That is the most any website can honestly offer, including this one. The rest you will learn in the first conversation, which is true of every broker you will ever speak to.
