Aviva announces offshoring plans for 2004

Aviva today announced that it will create around 2500 jobs in India in 2004 to service the group's UK and Canadian businesses. The company expects these jobs will be as follows:

• Around 2350 jobs to service its UK general insurance and life insurance businesses, comprising:

• Around 150 administration roles to support its general insurance business in Canada

By the end of this year Aviva will have approximately 1200 staff in its offshore operations in India. As a result of the announcement today, the company will increase this to a total of 3700 staff by the end of 2004. Aviva currently employs 59,000 staff worldwide, of which around 33,000 are in the UK.

Aviva anticipates that approximately 80 per cent of the jobs created in India to support the UK business will be accommodated in the UK by a combination of expansion, current vacancies, anticipated staff turnover and voluntary measures. Aviva will aim to accommodate the majority of the remaining roles elsewhere in the company (approximately 500) by redeployment, although it cannot rule out the possibility of compulsory redundancy.

Offshoring plans: UK

Around 2350 jobs will be created in India during 2004 to service Aviva's UK business, which trades as Norwich Union. Around 350 of these will be in the company's call and claims processing centres in Delhi and Bangalore, dealing principally with motor and household insurance enquiries and claims. These operations are part of a network of call and claims processing centres in India and the UK, where customers' telephone calls are directed to the first available operator. This network also includes the recently-opened purpose-built call centre in Norwich.

The remaining 2000 roles will be administration, processing and IT jobs. These 'back office' roles will handle administration and some IT services for the Norwich Union general insurance and life insurance businesses. Staff will be based in Delhi, Bangalore and Pune and work will be transferred to these new locations over the course of 2004.

Overall these plans will give the company extra flexibility and capacity for its UK business, while providing further scope to enhance efficiency and continue to deliver a high level of service to customers.

Offshoring plans: Canada

Aviva will create approximately 150 new jobs in India during 2004 to support its general insurance business in Canada. The staff will be based in Bangalore and will provide a new sales administration centre for a range of motor and home insurance products offered by Aviva Canada.

Impact on existing staff

There will be no job losses in Canada as a result of this move. Aviva anticipates that approximately 80 per cent of the jobs created in India to support the UK business will be accommodated in the UK by a combination of expansion, current vacancies, anticipated staff turnover and voluntary measures. For example, in 2003 the company filled over 4500 UK vacancies that were created through natural staff turnover.

The company has also set up a UK-wide redeployment process, which matches an individual's skills to internal vacancies in the event of redundancy. Redeployment and relocation assistance will be available where a suitable match is identified. The company has set aside Ł1.5m to provide career advice, retraining and other support to staff affected by these changes. As a result of these measures Aviva believes that it will be able to minimise the number of compulsory redundancies arising from these changes.

Richard Harvey, group chief executive of Aviva plc, said: "We are operating in an increasingly competitive environment. Our customers want value for money products and high levels of service so it is vital that we continually explore opportunities to improve our efficiency while maintaining service levels. Our staff in India are an important part of this process and our experiences to date have been positive.

"Making decisions that will affect our staff is always tough, but by taking action to remain competitive we will secure a long-term future for our business and therefore the majority of our people. Through our UK-wide redeployment process staff will have the best possible opportunity to find other roles within our group that match their skills."

Over the course of 2004 Aviva will continue to assess what future application offshore operations could have to other parts of its business.

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Media contacts:
Hayley Stimpson, director of external affairs +44 (0)20 7662 7544
Sue Winston, head of group media relations +44 (0)20 7662 8221
David Ross, media relations manager +44 (0)1603 683820
Alex Child-Villiers, Financial Dynamics +44 (0)20 7269 7107

Notes to editors:

• Aviva is the UK's largest insurer and one of the top-five life companies in Europe with substantial positions in other markets around the world, making it the world's seventh-largest insurance group based on gross worldwide premiums. In the UK Aviva operates under the Norwich Union brand.
• Aviva's principal business activities are long-term savings, fund management and general insurance, with worldwide premium income and retail investment sales from continuing operations of Ł28 billion for the year ended 31 December 2002, and assets under management of more than Ł200 billion at 31 December 2002.
• Aviva will work with a range of suppliers during 2004 in the provision of its offshore services.
• The jobs created in India to support the UK business will be approximately two-thirds in support of the general insurance business and one-third in support of the life business.
  
• Aviva also has a life insurance joint venture in India, Aviva Life Insurance Company India. Launched in 2002, the company is a joint venture between Dabur, one of India's oldest and largest group of companies and Aviva. It employs around 450 staff.
  
• The Aviva internet media centre is at www.aviva.com/media.