JLT will spend £10m on e-commerce plan

Jardine Lloyd Thompson (JLT) is to spend £10m on e-commerce initiatives in a bid to strengthen its hand as an internet player.

The venture was announced at the same time as JLT's results, which showed an increase in turnover of 8% to £251 million last year and profits before tax and exceptional items up 9% to £63.m.

JLT chief executive Ken Carter said: "These are strong results which we have achieved purely through organic growth. They demonstrate the success of our new strategy and operating plan, adopted in 1999."

The e-commerce drive follows a £1m strategy study that identified two ways JLT makes a profit from the internet. These are: creating links with professional organisations' intranet sites to offer JLT's products, and providing outsourcing options for third party technology companies,

JLT Corporate Risks & Services chief executive John Hastings-Bass said: "We are a little unusual in that we actually want to make money out of the web. But we are not focusing on using it for direct marketing, not for selling direct for businesses."

Instead JLT will attempt to leverage off its existing affinity marketing relationships to offer its services to professional organisations, labour unions and other wide database holders.

The firm also wants to develop alliances with companies that provide third party web initiatives to the insurance industry, but lack staff.