INSURANCE brokers Smart and Cook Group has added seven branches across Yorkshire to its name.

The Harrogate business has acquired the branches from brokers Oughtred and Harrison, boosting premium income by about £20m in the process.

The deal takes Smart and Cook into the UK's top five independent brokers in terms of revenue.

Smart and Cook already owns ten offices, in the North of England and Scotland.

While four of the Oughtred and Harrison branches are in areas covered by Smart and Cook - Hull, Lincoln, Leeds and Grimsby - the others mean an expansion for the firm into Chippenham, in Wiltshire, Clitheroe, in Lancashire, and Ludlow, in Shropshire.

Oughtred and Harrison deals in the commercial insurance market and employs 100 staff, who will transfer to Smart and Cook.

The acquisition is the latest in a series of deals for Smart and Cook, which acquired AN Insurance, of Grimsby, and Castlegate Insurance, of Stockton-on-Tees, in November.

That deal added £1.5m in revenue to the business.

Paul Meehan, managing director of the Smart and Cook Group, said: "The purchase of Oughtred and Harrison's portfolio is a major move for Smart and Cook, and sees us expanding South and West, as well as increasing our presence in Yorkshire.

"Along with the broker purchases in November, Smart and Cook is now looking to become one of the biggest names in the SME insurance market."