Majority of workers at Connah’s Quay based insurance firm made redundant

Workers at a Connah’s Quay based insurance firm have been made redundant.

Staveley Head employs around 85 people at its Church Street office in Connah’s Quay.

The award winning company has been operating in Flintshire for over 27 years.

Employees were sent a letter last week warning the “majority of employees of Staveley Head and Policy Plan are at risk of redundancy.”

Managing Director Ashley Peters said in the letter, “the reason for this is the impact that the recent early termination of the Gefion binding agreement has had.”

Staveley Head has been acting as the managing general agent for Scandinavia-based insurance company Gefion and selling insurance underwritten by them.

At the start of December, Staveley Head chose to stop writing Gefion business which has had a huge impact on its own business. 

Staveley said discussions had been underway with new “capacity providers” but have been left with “no choice other than to review our operating structures, in particular resourcing levels.”

In his letter to staff Mr Peters said, “The commercial reality of this situation simply makes this untenable and not sustainable, therefore it is imperative that we react to the current situation.

As a result, proposed changes to the existing roles and structures have been identified and we will shortly be entering into a period of consultation in order to discuss these proposals with affected employees.”

The managing director went on to say: “I would like to reassure you all that this decision has not been taken lightly, and we find ourselves potentially having to significantly reduce the workforce across both locations.” [Connah’s Quay and Flint]

Steven Muncaster and Sarah Bell, of Duff and Phelps, have been appointed joint administrators of Staveley Head Limited.

North Wales Live, has published a comment from joint administrator Steven Muncaster, He said: “Staveley Head Limited was engaged in a three-year contract with its main insurer, which was prematurely terminated in November 2019 as a result of the insurer’s financial issues.

This led to an overnight loss of the majority of Staveley Head Limited’s business. 

Unfortunately, due to the specialist nature of the business, these outcomes have not been achieved and the company has now entered administration.

As a result, it is with regret that the majority of staff have been made redundant and we are now working closely with management to secure a sale of the remaining business and/or its book.

We encourage any interested parties to come forward as soon as possible.

Since then the directors of the business have been working with advisors to either secure an alternative insurer or a purchaser.”

Deeside.com has contacted Staveley Head on several occasions over the past week.