Throwback Thursday: Hiring spree & Norwich Union purchases
Insurance Post’s Throwback Thursday steps back in time to January 1985 to remind you what was going on this week in insurance history when the year was starting with a hiring surge and Norwich Union was buying some prime City real estate.
10 January 1985: Jobs fillip
The start of 1985 was more favourable for job prospects in insurance than the beginning of 1984 was, according to a survey by Manpower.
More insurers intended to expand their workforces in the three months to the end of March than were forecasting staff forces.
One in five insurance companies expected to grow their headcount in 1985.
Norwich Union buys London office blocks
Norwich Union, the insurer now known as Aviva, paid £57.5m (£172m in today’s money) for two City office blocks.
The provider snapped up one building in Fenchurch Street, where Aviva is now based in London, and another 190,000sq ft complex off Fleet Street.
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