American Life to create 200 Scots direct sales jobs

Published on Wednesday 31 March 2004 01:00

UNITED States insurance giant American Life is to create 200 jobs in Scotland by setting up a new direct sales force.

The group, a subsidiary of AIG, currently employs just 20 people across offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Stirling, but has had a presence in the UK since 1928.

American Life will employ the direct sales team through recruitment firm Manpower and while the employees will work from home, they will be tied to one of four Scottish offices. Chris Woolmer, sales quality director, said: "In theory, the number of jobs we will create is unlimited. These are salaried, full-time jobs with a proper employment contract.

"But the sales team need to bring in sales to make big money. By the end of the year, we would hope to have at least 200 staff in Scotland as part of a 2000-strong staff doing the same thing across the UK."

Rivals such as Prudential, Friends Provident and Britannic Group are among a number of firms to have abandoned their direct sales forces in recent years. Earlier this month, Standard Life cut 360 jobs from its direct sales force, including almost 100 in Edinburgh.

Mr Woolmer said the industry-wide trend to move away from door-to-door sales towards cheaper call centre operations had opened up a "gap in the market" for American Life, which will sell a range of low-premium protection products, mainly critical illness, healthcare and redundancy cover.

He said individual agents would be expected to build a client base initially through friends and family.