The Caerphilly headquartered Moorhouse Group trading as Constructaquote.com, is set to create nearly 90 jobs under an expansion project supported by the Welsh Government which ensures the investment goes ahead in Wales.
Moorhouse Group – a leading commercial insurance broker – aims to double in size over the next three years and had considered outsourcing work to South Africa.
Funding support of £550,000 from the Welsh Government has now secured the investment which will go ahead in Caerphilly.
The business – founded by entrepreneur Lyndon Wood in 1990 at the age of 19 is now a top 100 UK insurance broker. It currently employs 105 people and the expansion will nearly double staff numbers – creating 89 jobs and safeguarding a further 78.
Economy Minister Edwina Hart said: “South Africa has become a flourishing business process outsourcing market and is proving to be a cost effective option for a number of companies particularly those working in insurance where it has a known capability.
“I am pleased to announce that support from the Welsh Government will ensure the Moorhouse Group’s planned expansion will now take place at their headquarters in Caerphilly where a significant number of jobs will be created and retained in Wales.”
Lyndon Wood, CEO and business founder commented: “I am delighted that we are able to press forward with our expansion plans in Caerphilly as this is where the business was founded.
“Moorhouse Group will be adding over £1.5m of our own funds to the support provided by the Welsh Government and this combined investment will offer significant new growth and development opportunities to our existing loyal workforce. On top of this it will also see us welcome around 90 new members to the Moorhouse family over the next 24 months.
“Many of our competitors have located operations overseas to drive competitiveness – we have made a different choice – we are keeping our operation in Wales in order to continue to deliver great service at competitive prices to our customers through our knowledgeable and loyal staff. This investment ensures we can compete and grow in a consolidating and challenging market place.”
Moorhouse Group offers its services across the UK and operates as a sales intermediary, brokering insurance products and provides a full range of liability insurance, commercial vehicle insurance and professional indemnity insurance.
Its main brands are ConstructaQuote.com and XBroker – the former being an online insurance quote comparison service dedicated to the UK SME market and the later being its broker network business.
It targets niche markets including SMEs and micro SMEs, tradesmen and contractors, with a focus on the construction sector and commercial fleet owners as well as consultants across the country.
It has identified a number of strategic priorities for the development of the business with plans to build underwriting capability and resources, expand its van and commercial vehicle business as well as developing its SME product offerings with customer centricity at its core.