British auto insurer, bringing 40-50 jobs initially, is locating in Henrico

A British auto insurance company is locating its new U.S. operation in western Henrico County.

Admiral Americas plans to employ 40-50 people by the end of the third quarter of 2009 and a projected 200 by the end of its second year here.

"It's our U.S. headquarters," said Andrew Rose, Admiral Americas' president and chief executive officer. "All the infrastructure for the organization will be based out of Richmond for the foreseeable future."

Admiral is actively recruiting employees and has particular interest in the recently displaced workers in the region.

"There's such good talent out in the community right now," Rose said. "We hope to take advantage of that to give people employment opportunities."

Admiral is looking for information technology, human resources, finance, operations and marketing people, he said.

"We're in rapidly hiring mode," Rose said. "We're creating a company from scratch."

The Greater Richmond Partnership announced Admiral Americas' decision to locate its direct-to-consumer auto insurer operations center in the Richmond region yesterday.

The company plans to lease 26,000 square feet of vacant space in Henrico County's Innsbrook area, Rose said.

Admiral Americas is a subsidiary of Admiral Group PLC, the United Kingdom's third largest auto insurer. It targets as its customer base people who traditionally find it difficult to get cheaper insurance.

"Expanding into the U.S. has been a part of our long-range growth plans, the timing is right and Richmond looks like the right location," Henry Engelhardt, Admiral Group's chief executive officer, said in a statement.

In a six-month competition, Admiral also considered locating its headquarters in Charlotte, Dallas and Chicago, Rose said.

In making its location decision, the company took into account factors such as cost of living, work-force availability and business climate, he said.

Besides the fact that he favored Richmond, Rose also cited the Greater Richmond Partnership's efforts at marketing the Richmond region to Admiral and start-up support from the Virginia Department of Business Assistance in selecting the area.

Rose is a graduate of Virginia Tech and the University of Virginia's Darden School of Business.

Contact Peter Bacqué at (804) 649-6813 or .