Norwich Union announced today that it is transferring its processing operations from Cheadle to other existing administrative operations across the UK.
Norwich Union has announced that 900 jobs are to go in its UK general insurance and life and pensions businesses, including the closure of its life and pensions administration office in Cheadle.
The majority of jobs affected are at four locations - Norwich, Perth, Worthing and Cheadle - although there will be some minor changes in other areas across the country. Where possible, staff will be found alternative roles within Norwich Union. However, due to the specialist nature of many roles, it will not be possible to redeploy all staff and it is expected that these changes will result in approximately 600 compulsory redundancies across the life and general insurance businesses.
Norwich Union and parent company Aviva employ around 33,000 staff in the UK and the majority of staff will be unaffected by these changes. There is minimal impact on customer-facing staff. These announcements are not connected with the recent opening of an Aviva call centre operation in India.
Commenting on today’s announcement, Patrick Snowball, group executive director, Aviva plc, said: “We operate in an extremely competitive market and have to continually look at ways to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness.
“Making decisions that affect our staff is always difficult, but we believe these changes are necessary to adapt to changing market conditions and make our business fit for the future.”
General Insurance
The changes follow a review across all areas of the business to achieve greater efficiency and effectiveness, as well as to further strengthen the focus on delivering excellent customer service. These changes – which follow the recently-announced reorganisation of the senior management team – are designed to re- align business operations to reflect the new structure.
The review looked at processes, ways of working and the organisational structure of the general insurance business, to centralise some activity and remove duplication. In the general insurance business there will be 630 job losses, around half of which are expected to be compulsory.
The review of the general insurance business will be completed for most staff by the end of August.
Life and pensions business
As a result of an operational review of administration in the life and pensions business, the Cheadle administration office will close, resulting in the loss of 280 jobs, most of which will be compulsory redundancies. The business currently processed by this office will be transferred to other Norwich Union operational sites.
The Cheadle office will be closed by the end of March 2004.
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Media contact:
Liz Kennett/Louise Zucchi at Norwich Union press office on 08703 66 68 63/08703 66 68 68.
Notes to editors:
- Norwich Union and parent company Aviva employ around 33,000 staff across the UK – approximately 14,500 work in the life and pensions business, 14,000 in the general insurance business and the remainder in other business areas.
- Norwich Union is the UK’s largest insurer with a general insurance market share of around 16 per cent, which is more than 1.5 times the size of its nearest rival. It is a leading provider of life, pensions and investment products and one of the leading IFA providers.
- Norwich Union’s news releases and a selection of images are available on the Aviva internet press centre at www.aviva.com/media