Member Article

Jobs at risk at Harrogate's Engage Mutual after revealing merger plans

Jobs may be lost at Harrogate-based assurance and savings business Engage Mutual as it plans to merge with Brighton-based Family Investments.

Engage Mutual has £900 million in assets, 500,000 members and more than 200 employees, will merge if both mutuals approve it at a vote in December.

According to the Yorkshire Post, if and when the move is approved, all Engage policies and members will transfer to Family Investments from April 1 2015.

According to a proposed terms, the transfer will create “opportunities for greater effciencies which is likely to result in a number of redundancies”.

The combined organisation’s head office will be moved to Brighton, home of Family Investments.

While the merger is expected to take up to three years to complete, the terms only commit to maintaining a North Yorkshire presence for two years.

A spokeswoman for Engage Mutual said in bringing together two firms there is “bound to be a degree of overlap, which is likely to have some impact on headcount”.

She said: “Should we get members’ approval we will examine the resource requirements of a combined organisation in more detail, consulting with our staff throughout.”

In regards to its Harrogate office, she said the joint entity is “still scoping the shape of the business”.

Engage chief executive Peter Burrows previously denied the merger amounted to a takeover by its larger rival.

Family Investments has £4.9 billion in assets from two million members.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Clare Burnett .