Thornside, the pet insurance division of Capita Insurance Distribution, today announced it has been appointed by AXA to provide and administer Sainsbury’s pet insurance. Thornside is the third party administrator for AXA, which provides Sainsbury’s pet insurance and will handle sales, fulfilment and claims handling for its pet insurance products.
Gary Stott, managing director, corporate partnerships at AXA commented: “We were looking for an administrator which could meet Sainsbury’s requirements to provide an end to end process in order to streamline Sainsbury’s pet insurance offering and we believe we have found this in Thornside. We look forward to working closely with the team to significantly grow the pet insurance business and maintain Sainsbury’s position as a major player in this market.”
David Seel, managing director of Thornside, commented: “We already work closely with AXA on providing pet insurance for other well known brands in the UK and we look forward to developing our relationship further through this agreement. An increasing number of consumers are taking advantage of competitive financial products from Sainsbury’s Bank and we are confident that Sainsbury’s will continue to experience success with its pet insurance offering.”
Mark Townsend, managing director of Capita Insurance Distribution, commented: “We are delighted with this opportunity to increase our involvement with AXA and excited about the prospect of working closely with Sainsbury’s Bank. This arrangement also means that we will be expanding our operations in Colchester and Portsmouth and I look forward to welcoming new colleagues who will be joining the business”.
Sainsbury’s offers pet owners two different cover options from which they can choose to protect themselves and their pets against costs associated with vet fees, theft/straying, third party liability, overseas travel, death and locating pet minders. This can be done via www.sainsburyspetinsurance.co.uk or by calling 0800 434 6359.
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Capita Insurance Distribution, part of Capita Insurance Services, is the fifth largest UK personal lines insurance intermediary and third party administrator specialising in personal lines solutions for affinity clients. Capita Insurance Distribution employs over 800 staff (based in Portsmouth, Colchester, Romford, Andover and St Ives in Cambridge) and administers around £200m of personal lines gross written insurance premium. It works with 49 insurance companies in the UK personal lines market place, and currently maintains different product sites for 82 household brands such as Asda, Liverpool Victoria and Admiral. Further information can be found at www.capitainsuranceservices.co.uk
Thornside, the pet insurance division of Capita Insurance Distribution, administers more than 35 Pet Schemes for affinity Partners and insures approximately 300,000 dogs and cats in the UK through its Petwise product; including schemes for Home Retail Group, Halifax Bank, esure, RSPCA, Greenbee, AA, Asda and Debenhams. Further information can be found at www.petwise-insurance.co.uk
The Capita Group Plc is the UK’s leading provider of BPO and integrated professional support service solutions. With 36,000 people at more than 300 sites, including 60 business centres across the UK, Ireland, the Channel Islands and India, the Group uses its expertise, infrastructure and scale benefits to transform its clients’ services, driving down costs and adding value. Capita is quoted on the London Stock Exchange (CPI.L), and is a constituent of the FTSE100 with revenues for 2008 of £2,441 million. Further information on The Capita Group Plc can be found at: www.capita.co.uk