North Waterloo Farmers Mutual agrees to merge with Oxford Mutual Insurance

Two Western Ontario farmers’ mutual insurance companies – North Waterloo Farmers Mutual Insurance Company and Oxford Mutual Insurance Company – announced Monday they agreed to merge.

The merger – which is subject to approval both by regulators and by mutual policyholders – would create Heartland Farm Mutual Insurance Inc.

Oxford was founded in 1878 and is based in Thamesford, about halfway between London and Woodstock. NWFM – founded four years earlier – is based in Waterloo.

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“Heartland can reduce the expense ratio through greater economies of scale,” NWFM and Oxford said in a joint press release Monday. “The company is expected to develop synergies and maintain the number of employees at current levels.”

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Oxford and NWFM had premium revenues of $11 million and $94 million respectively in 2014. Both firms write farm, commercial, home and auto insurance.

NWFM’s commercial offerings include retail, office, contractors, church and apartment building.

[Below – click to open digital edition: From Canadian Underwriter’s January 2015 issue Gallery, Page 71 – North Waterloo Farmers Mutual Insurance Company celebrates its 140th Anniversary with an open house at the company’s newly expanded headquarters on October 2, 2014]…