Royal & SunAlliance is cutting 1,000 jobs in the UK.
The insurer has announced a range of growth initiatives designed to save £130m per annum in expenses by mid-2008. This represents about 9% of its cost base.
In order to achieve these savings, R&SA is planning to shed a total of 1,500 jobs worldwide.
The insurer will bring the job cuts in gradually over the next two years, working closely with unions to minimise the number of compulsory redundancies.
R&SA is committed to achieving double-digit growth for its international business, doubled premiums in the Baltics and growing its UK affinity business by more than 50%.
Bridget McIntyre, R&SA's UK chief executive, said: "I see exciting opportunities to build the UK's best general insurer. But in order to achieve our growth plans we must also reduce our costs, making it cheaper and easier for customers to do business with us.
"Decisions like these that affect our people are difficult, but it is the right thing for our customers and our business. Every support will be given to our colleagues to assist them finding new roles either within the business or with other companies."
Andy Haste, Group chief executive of Royal & SunAlliance said: "We have a clear strategy of running general insurance businesses with strong market positions to deliver sustainable profitable performance. The decision to reduce headcount is always a difficult one but necessary to ensure we remain as competitive as
possible and to continue to deliver on our objective of sustainable profitable performance.
“Over the last three years we have built an excellent platform for growth with exciting opportunities. We have developed a strong track record of delivery and we will be pursuing these new opportunities with the same drive, energy and ambition as we have applied to the restructuring of the business. We are confident that we will deliver on our plans and that we will strengthen our
position as one of the best general insurers.”
