Direct Line to axe 800 jobs as insurers see digital shift
Written by News on 26/02/2020
Direct Line Insurance Group is to cut 800 jobs by streamlining its operations across Britain as it seeks to contend with shifts in the way customers interact with their insurance companies.
Sky News has learnt that the FTSE-250 insurer, which also owns the Churchill and Green Flag brands, will inform staff at a number of sites later on Wednesday about the impending job losses.
One of Direct Line’s sites is understood to have been earmarked for closure in 2022, while another is to be significantly downsized, according to a person briefed on the plans.
In Bromley, Kent, where the company is based, roughly 1000 employees are expected to see their jobs change to accommodate “agile working”, with a small number of roles expected to be axed.
The total of almost 800 jobs that will be lost equates to just over 7% of Direct Line’s workforce of about 11,000 people.
Direct Line, which was part of the taxpayer-backed Royal Bank of Scotland until its taxpayer bailout in 2008, is seeking to adjust to consumers’ growing demand for digitally led services from traditionally cumbersome insurance companies.
Under Penny James, who replaced Paul Geddes as Direct Line chief executive last year, the company is facing challenges including greater regulatory scrutiny of the way the industry charges loyal customers, and the calculation of personal injury claims.
Ms James told investors last November that Direct Line would seek to remove £60m of costs to make it more efficient.
Wednesday’s changes are understood to account for a proportion of that £60m cost-saving plan.
Direct Line, which will report its annual results next week, declined to comment.
The company has a market value of close to £4.4bn.
A DLG spokesperson said: “Like many companies we are having to prepare for changes in the way we operate reflecting changing customer behaviour where people are increasingly opting to interact with us digitally.
“We are therefore proposing a number of changes across the business which sadly mean the loss of jobs for some of our people.”
(c) Sky News 2020: Direct Line to axe 800 jobs as insurers see digital shift
