Insurer FBD Holdings is to close 13 of its 47 branches in Ireland and introduce a voluntary redundancy programme in a bid to reduce staff numbers by 150.
In a statement FBD said customer behaviour was changing with 70 per cent now using the phone and internet to buy insurance with fewer customers visiting local offices.
The insurer currently employs the equivalent of 953 full-time staff and said, while it does not wish to be prescriptive, "it expects to have more than 800 posts after this process", a spokeswoman said.
FBD plans to start immediate consultations with the Unite union which represents many of the staff and a 30-day consultative process was now underway.
Chief executive Andrew Langford said the company was now the third largest insurer in the State and the business model had to change to reflect customer preferences.
"A number of offices will merge and we aim to achieve the resultant reduction in staff numbers through a voluntary severance programme in as short a timeframe as possible," he said.
The company noted that even once the restructuring is complete the numbers employed will remain higher than at January 2007, mainly due to the creation of 160 jobs at its Mullingar Support Centre.
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