A FIRM today confirmed a big jobs boost for Huddersfield.
LV=, the insurance giant, plans to take on 75 new staff when it sets up a base in the town.
Britannia Rescue, the group’s road rescue service, will also move from the Railway Station to the regenerated Folly Hall Mills. The new staff will be taken on over the next 18 months.
Insurance, pensions and investments group LV= hopes to move into Folly Hall in July.
Britannia Rescue already employs about 100 people in the town where it was first established more than 25 years ago.
Britannia Rescue came to Huddersfield in 1984 but has reached capacity at the station and needs to move to expand.
As well as the Britannia Rescue management team, LV= will open a new 24-hour call centre in Folly Hall to deal with both calls from LV= car insurance customers who have been involved in an accident and Britannia Rescue breakdown calls.
The 24-hour service will also be expanded to LV= home insurance customers during 2010 and the new office is set to become the company’s primary 24-hour call centre.
The new jobs there will be advertised later in the year and will include customer service advisor roles, team leader positions and management opportunities.
Folly Hall Mills, currently being renovated, is a stunning Grade II listed building which is on the fringe of the planned Waterfront Quarter.
Simon Stevens, general manager of LV=’s Huddersfield operation, said: “We are delighted to be expanding.
“Huddersfield has been a fantastic base for our Britannia Rescue business and with our positive experience here we are confident that Huddersfield will also be a great location for part of the LV= car insurance claims operation.
“We are committed to Huddersfield and to providing new jobs in the area. When many other financial companies are making redundancies we are actually expanding.
“This means that not only is there the opportunity for local people to join us, but there are great career prospects and the chance to move up.”
