Ageas confirms closure of Port Solent and Stoke centres

Ageas has completed its consultation and confirmed that it will follow through with proposed changes to close the Stoke-on-Trent and Port Solent offices.

In a statement Ageas said that following the 45-day process speaking with employees in one-to-one meetings and seeing local interested parties, “no alternative viable proposals were received.”

However, while all of the 388 staff will lose their jobs in the reorganisation, Ageas revealed that 80% of the 209 staff in the Port Solent office had been retained.

All operations at Port Solent will be transferred to Eastleigh by June 2019, while the Stoke-on-Trent office will close by June 2020.

Other elements of the reorganisation confirmed include the closure of the sales and service operation in Eastleigh (due to be consolidated in the Gloucester office) and the transfer of the IT and infrastructure teams to Tata Consultancy.

Difficult

“This has been a difficult and unsettling time for many of our people and I want to thank each of them for their professionalism throughout the process so far,” said chief executive Andy Watson.

“I’m pleased  that from our Port Solent office we’re retaining the expertise of around 80 per cent of people who are willing to make the move to Eastleigh.

“We’ve also offered alternative roles to around 32 people from the Sales and Service team in Eastleigh to other roles at that site.

“For our employees based in Stoke we will do all we can to support our people in securing alternative roles and are working with a number of organisations including local businesses.

“Talks so far have indicated that there are opportunities in the local area, with a strong interest in our capable, skilled and experienced people.”

Ageas stated it is working with organisations including the Department of Work and Pensions, National Careers Services and LHH Penna outplacement services to provide employees with advice on dealing with redundancy and finding alternative employment.

The review was said to reflect both the reduction in demand from customers wanting to buy insurance over the telephone and the increased business efficiency created by Ageas’ simplification work and investment in technology.