Hill House Hammond will close down its 240-shop network from May 2004.
Hill House Hammond (HHH) will close down its 240-shop network from May 2004. The head office in Bristol will also close.
The commercial lines book is up for sale and personal lines customers will be offerred an NU Direct renewal or placement through a panel that will be set up through NU.
1600 jobs will be affected. Although a spokesman said that 450 people can be redeployed in NU.
HHH chairman Ken Wallace said: "We are operating in an extremely competetive environment . . many customers now understand their motor or home insurance needs and will shop around for the best deal, so the number of customers who shop on the high street to arrange their insurance has fallen significantly."
"We are committed to our intermediary relationships and will continue to offer market-leading products and services to support brokers in growing the personal lines, commercial and specialist business."
Former managing director and current Biba chief executive Eric Galbraith said that the move does not signal an end to the future of high street broking. He added that it was sad to see so many of his former friends and colleagues facing redundancy.
