Direct Line is slicing 550 jobs as its boss embarks on a £100million cost-saving programme to show round its fortunes.
The cuts, representing 5 per cent of the beleaguered insurance coverage agency’s workforce, have been introduced because the group revealed that it had misplaced 71,000 own-brand motor insurance coverage prospects within the newest quarter.
Chief govt Adam Winslow mentioned ‘the route of journey is optimistic’, however that there was ‘much more work to go’.
Job cuts: Direct Line has revealed that it had misplaced 71,000 own-brand motor insurance coverage prospects within the newest quarter
Direct Line fended off a takeover try by Belgian rival Ageas earlier this 12 months and has been implementing value hikes as the price of claims soars.
That has prompted an exodus amongst its own-brand motor insurance coverage prospects, with the whole quantity falling to only over 3m within the third quarter.
It’s practically 400,000 decrease than on the similar interval a 12 months in the past, although the speed of buyer exits has slowed within the newest three-month interval, and different strains of enterprise, together with dwelling insurance coverage, have been extra secure.
Complete gross written premiums and different charges earned by the group within the third quarter fell 35 per cent to £705million, from practically £1.1billion a 12 months earlier.
Winslow’s technique to develop buyer numbers once more entails making Direct Line insurance coverage obtainable on value comparability web sites for the primary time, reversing years of resistance to the transfer underneath earlier bosses.
On the similar time, the corporate mentioned yesterday it was pushing forward with £50million of the £100million cost-saving goal beforehand introduced by the chief govt, who was appointed in March.
Winslow instructed that there may very well be extra cost-cutting to come back after hitting the £100million goal.
He mentioned the job cuts introduced yesterday have been ‘not concentrated in a single place, they’re unfold comparatively evenly throughout the complete organisation as we glance to enhance our approach of working’.
Bromley-based Direct Line, which additionally has eight different regional workplaces, employs round 10,000 workers.
Like different huge employers, it has been hit by Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s choice to hike employer Nationwide
Insurance coverage contributions in a £25billion tax raid although Winslow declined to place a determine on it.
‘We’re a comparatively massive employer and so the fee is due to this fact comparatively massive,’ Winslow mentioned.
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