Towergate to open Leicester office

The decision will see the staff in Nottingham and Hinkley transfer to a new building.

It follows the move reported by Insurance Age in January that the two offices were being brought under the remit of Andy Bedford.

According to Mike Lawton, chief executive of Towergate's broking division, the decision has not been about reducing staff numbers with all those affected having been offered a role at the new site during a consultation period.

"I am looking to create a new larger site in the Leicester area," said Lawton.

"We are under-represented in the Leicester area and are not in the greatest office in either Nottingham or Hinkley."

Redundancy
Regarding the 40 people affected he added that it was "not a redundancy situation".

"It is bringing them together on one site," he clarified.

As part of the move the broker has also transferred one of its smaller schemes dealing with classic cars to Milton Keynes from Nottingham

"It is exciting for us to invest in a new site," continued Lawton.

"Part of my strategy is not to reduce the UK footprint. If anything I want to grow it over the next year or two."

The new site, with approximately £10m of gross written premium, will also be led by Bedford.

"It will be a corporate centre focusing on advisory business where we are selling face-to-face bespoke products to customers, less of the telephony sales, across all commercial lines," said Lawton.

He confirmed that while there was no short-term "masterplan" about increasing the site in terms of people or revenue, the new building had capacity to cope with double the business.

"We have plenty of room for organic growth or acquisitions."

Competition
The broker previously only had a Towergate Financial office in the city, with nothing reporting to Lawton. And as to what reaction he expected from competitors he bullishly stated that he did not "care".

"I'd like to think they welcome the competition. I have a lot of respect for the people [in Leicester] but it is not going to stop me going to territories where I think we can grow and be more successful," he set out.

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