Liberty Insurance to shed 270 jobs amid UK personal lines motor exit

Liberty Insurance, Liberty Mutual’s Ireland subsidiary has announced it is making 270 redundancies.

The move has been driven by a decision to exit the personal lines motor market in the UK, while some of the job losses are connected to difficult trading conditions in Ireland, the Irish Times reports.

One hundred and thirty five jobs are expected to be lost from Dublin, 115 in Cavan, and 20 in Enniskillen in Northern Ireland, where it is to transfer its contact centre to a third-party provider.

Liberty Insurance Ireland chief executive Tom Mcllduff said the insurer had recorded a loss in Ireland in 2013 and 2014 is expected to make a loss in 2015.

Liberty acquired the former Quinn Insurance business out of administration in a two-part transaction starting in 2011.

Mcllduff said he was not confident that the business would make a return to profit before the end of 2016.

He added: “It’s fair to say that we didn’t expect to be in this position when we entered the market three years ago.

“It has proved to be more difficult than we had anticipated, particularly in Great Britain.”

Despite the difficulties, McIlduff added the company continued to have the strong support of its Boston parent group, which he said was fully committed to Ireland.

The announces comes a year after Liberty Mutual said it had acquired Northern Irish broker Hughes Insurance to build a presense in the Northern Ireland market through Hughes’ network.

The insurer also said it would become the lead underwriter of Hughes’s £60m gross written premiums.

Liberty employs 950 people in Ireland. The redundancy programme is expected to be complete within the next 18 months.