New UK office planned to deal with higher volume of business at Junction
Budget is to recruit 600 call centre staff around the country to underpin growth in its affinity subsidiary, Junction, and expansion into the home market.
Budget chief executive Peter Winslow said the broker was currently looking to open a further office to accommodate the new staff.
He said: "We are talking about opening another office. Looking at the volume of business we are transacting, we need a new site. It will be UK based and probably close to one of our existing offices."
It comes as Junction announced further development of its deal with yesinsurance.co.uk to include home and commercial vehicle products from the end of the year. Both products will be underwritten by yesinsurance.co.uk parent Provident Insurance alongside other Budget panel members.
Junction managing director Phil Zeidler said: "Through the new home and commercial vehicle schemes, yesinsurance.co.uk is able to maximise the benefit of its marketing activity and offer a broader range of products to its growing customer base."
Junction is also set to announce another major affinity deal in the coming weeks which is expected to further increase its share of the sector.
Meanwhile, Budget's subsidiary price comparison website, Compare The Market (CTM), will expand into home insurance from 1 December. There are also proposals to add health, life, pet and travel insurance to the website in the coming 12 months.
At the same time Budget & Dial will also accelerate growth in the home market in 2007. "We are going to have a big push on home next year, and we are looking at developing a marketing campaign," said Matthew Gledhill, managing director of Budget & Dial.
In December and January the broker will pilot an SME product which is expected to be rolled out next year. There will also be further interest in pet and travel products, said Gledhill, "but these would only be bolt on products".
