Navacord Inc. announces Petrela, Winter & Associates as new broker partner

Navacord Inc. is expanding its partnership of entrepreneurial insurance brokers across Canada with the announcement Tuesday that Toronto-based Petrela, Winter & Associates is joining the Navacord network.

“The Petrela, Winter & Associates team has the expertise, high-level specialization and culture that complement our guiding principles and business strategy,” T. Marshall Sadd, executive chairman at Navacord, says in a statement from the company, one of the largest privately owned and Top 10 largest commercial brokers in Canada.

Navacord’s focus since its inception has been on quality of broker partners that will add value to the group, the statement notes. Committed to keeping the entrepreneurial spirit alive, the brokerage’s business model enables new partners to remain majority employee-owned while focusing on organic growth, producing healthy profits and internal perpetuation.

Over its 36-year history, Petrela, Winter & Associates has maintained its distinctive focus, providing professional bonding, insurance and business consulting services to construction companies.

“We are looking to pursue partnerships with brokerages that will further enhance our depth of expertise in niche areas of commercial insurance,” comments Shawn DeSantis, president and CEO at Navacord.

Petrela, Winter & Associates offers “a highly specialized, experienced team that is focused solely on servicing the construction and bonding industry, one of the fastest growing segments in the Canadian marketplace,” DeSantis points out.

“Our decision to partner with Navacord was heavily weighted on their unique business vision and the value proposition it provides to our clients and employees,” says Gregory Petrela, president of Petrela, Winter & Associates.

“As a Navacord partner, we will succeed as a bigger and stronger force in the insurance brokerage community, maintaining our entrepreneurial culture and autonomy, which is important to us,” Petrela emphasizes.

There will be no changes to the leadership or operational structure of the business, with Gregory Petrela and vice president Roy Ferreira continuing to lead the company, which will still operate as Petrela, Winter & Associates.

It will maintain its distinct construction industry focus, Navacord reports, but will now benefit from the group’s wealth of expertise, innovation, increased buying power, talent development and administrative support.