Our History
With over 80 years of progress, Grange Insurance has grown to become a successful mid-sized company here to do the right thing. This is our story.
Grange's beginning
Our story began in 1930 when John Haaf learned that his six-month insurance premium jumped from $10 to $12. A Summit County, Ohio farmer, Haaf saw no reason for the increase because he was a safe driver who never had an insurance claim. As a member of the Ohio State Grange, also known as The Patrons of Husbandry, Haaf shared the idea of offering low-cost auto insurance with other members of the agriculture-based group.
In February 1933, the Town and Village Insurance Company Services worked under an agreement with Grange Insurance Services, Inc. to write automobile insurance for members of the Ohio State Grange.
Grange Mutual Casualty Company is formed
On March 25, 1935, Grange Mutual Casualty Company was formed as a non-profit corporation under the General Code of Ohio (now known as Chapter 1702, Revised Code) and assumed the book of business from Town & Village Insurance Services. Its principal business writing property and casualty insurance coverage for policyholders as a mutual insurance company.
The company’s first home office was in a sixth-floor suite of the Southern Hotel at Main and High Street in downtown Columbus, Ohio.
The Board of Directors was established in 1938.
A multi-line insurance company
Grange settled at 671 South High Street in Columbus, Ohio, where we eventually constructed our current headquarters.
In 1955, Grange became a multi-line company by offering fire insurance. Three years later the Board of Directors voted to expand our customer base beyond Ohio State Grange Members and beyond Ohio.
Your partner in protection
We expanded our headquarters in 1959.
Grange started writing policies in the state of Georgia in 1960 followed by Kentucky and Tennessee over the next two years.
In 1964, we updated our logo to include “Your Partner in Protection,” a phrase that reflects our commitment to agents and policyholders. We added to our policyholder coverage options in 1968, launching the Grange Life Insurance Company.
Rooted in core values
We constructed a new corporate headquarters in 1977.
In 1996, Grange established five core values that represent our organization:
- Candor
- Ownership
- Integrity
- Teamwork
- Do the Right Thing
Three years later Grange introduced its Ease of Doing Business® (EODB) concept, which is still used today to describe Grange’s hassle-free approach to insurance for agents and policyholders.
The 2000s brought even more success to Grange. We began our affiliation with Integrity Mutual Insurance Company, another Midwest-based insurance company dedicated to the independent agent channel in 2001.
Two years later in 2003 and for the first time ever, Grange topped more than $1 billion in annual premium. With our commitment to financial strength, stability and strategic growth, the enterprise has continued to write over $1 billion in annual premium ever since.
Making our mark
Grange expanded its corporate campus in 2008, adding more than 240,000 square feet and space for more than 875 additional associates. In addition, the Grange Insurance Audubon Center at the Scioto Audubon Metro Park opened one mile away in 2009.
By 2013, Grange reached $1 billion in surplus, reinforcing the company’s financial strength and stability.
Five years later, Grange returned its focus solely to Property & Casualty insurance business, selling the Grange Life Insurance Company to Kansas City Life.
To more effectively identify and work with early-stage companies, InsurTechs and emerging technologies, Grange partnered with Rev1 Ventures to create a collaboration called G-Force Innovations in 2019.
Do the right thing
When the COVID-19 pandemic arrived in 2020, 57% of Grange associates transitioned to work-from-home in addition to the 40% of workers who were already working virtually. Only 3% of associates worked in-office from March 2020 until the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention deemed it safe for workers to return to the building.
During that same year, Grange donated $1 million to nonprofits for COVID-19 pandemic aid and an additional $1 million to advance racial equality and support health and human services the following year in 2021. As policyholders were negatively impacted by the pandemic, we responded by providing paybacks to help them financially. Our Businessowner Policy (BOP) payback, returned 20% of April and May premiums to small business customers, while we also returned 25% of premium to our personal auto policyholders.
Throughout the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic and continuing today, Grange is committed to acting on our core value of Doing the Right Thing.