Granite Insurance

Granite Falls, North Carolina
Founded: 1936
Employees: 12

Challenge Design Innovations, a zip line manufacturer, was struggling with workers compensation. Owner Jim Wall agreed to meet with Cameron Annas, who had just graduated college and was eager to carve a place for himself in his parents’ firm.

The sales call was among Annas's first five, and he struck gold in an underserved industry. By the next week, Wall was distributing Annas’s business cards to colleagues at the international trade show of the Association of Challenge Course Technologies, which he co-founded. The adventure sport niche now represents nearly a third of Granite’s revenue and is handled by a team of two staff members—both 26 years old.

At Granite, four producers serve 1,400 personal lines and 430 commercial lines customers, with the latter composing 70% of the business mix.

CAMERON N. ANNAS
VICE PRESIDENT, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT

Everybody says you can’t come out of college and be a producer. That’s completely inaccurate. People love the fresh air and enthusiasm we bring. I think we were the complete opposite of what Jim expected. We truly cared about the success of his company. He and other clients are the most successful marketing resource we have. Our bread and butter has been the zip line and ropes course industries, and we’ve pretty much dominated that market.

Our biggest challenge now is where to go next. We are excited to replicate the success we’ve had in other adventure sport subsectors. 

The more intellectual capital we have available on our team, the better we can serve our communities. We aggressively encourage and promote educational opportunities provided by the Independent Insurance Agents & Brokers of North Carolina, the national Big “I,” Keystone Insurers Group, National Alliance and others.

CHASE KELLER
ADVENTURE SPORT ACCOUNT MANAGER

Over the past four years, our adventure sport division has put Granite on the national map. We’re actively involved in adventure sports trade associations, and their resources keep us abreast of industry-specific trends and regulations.

Technology allowed us to develop the niche. Our goal is to become an integral part of our clients’ daily operations, but communication can’t always happen face to face when your clients are spread out over 40 states. Phone and email are our primary means of communication. We’ve fully embraced the paperless concept and have implemented a zero-backlog system.

NEIL T. ANNAS
PRESIDENT

A new, aggressive sales culture has revolutionized our agency. Our team is more passionate, our agency is growing and our clients are succeeding. Organic growth is one of our primary initiatives, so we continually identify ways to provide additional services to promote the success of our partners.

Our next big investment will be to develop the customer experience. The insurance industry is antiquated, and consumers have come to expect an experience far beyond what the current industry is providing. Granite is excited about changing this and revolutionizing the customer experience, from start to finish.

We take care of our team because they're our most valuable asset. We recently appointed a new chief fun officer and lifestyle enhancement director to pump up team socialization and wellness initiatives. Recent successful ideas include a corn maze fun day, standup desks, morning and afternoon walks around town, team puzzle challenges, corn hole games and breaks in our new outdoor gazebo.

Photo by Bob Carey