VHI to Create 120 Jobs in the South East

6th April 2000 - VHI today (6 April 2000) announced that it is to establish a new business centre in Kilkenny creating 120 jobs in the South East.

VHI presently employs 720 people in Dublin, Cork, Limerick and Galway and the new facility at the Dublin Road Industrial Park, Kilkenny will open in August and will provide an additional 120 jobs over the next 18 months.

The new VHI business centre will operate from an IDA owned building at Purcellsinch. The building is currently leased by a US insurance company which announced today that it is to close down its Irish operation in August.

"VHI's growing range of products and services including our E health initiatives and the expansion of our business has prompted this move to locate a facility in the South East. This Kilkenny facility will ensure that VHI continues to provide excellent services for our growing membership which now stands at almost 1.5 million people. New member sales for the year ended 29 February 2000 were the highest ever at 68,497. Our corporate business grew significantly by over 600 new accounts.

Sales of our Options Plans increased by 100,000 to 400,000 and VHI Global, VHI’s international health cover product, has exceeded all expectations to realise revenue of £1million in its first year," said VHI Chief Executive Oliver Tattan.

"This reflects the tremendous growth in VHI's business since the introduction of competition in the health insurance market."

VHI is focused on providing customers with quality service. "We want to maximise the opportunities presented by the Government White Paper on Private Health Insurance which was published last September. VHI is currently preparing to introduce an expanded range of products and services. We have launched a £4 million E-Commerce Strategy which includes B2B (business to business) facilities which we are already rolling out for our corporate customers and we are poised to launch the first comprehensive Irish health portal at www.vhihealth.com shortly," said Mr Tattan.

"VHI will be interviewing any interested people who are currently employed by the US insurance company with a view to filling our immediate requirements in Kilkenny. Further requirements to bring our complement to 120 jobs will be interviewed for locally," said VHI human resources director, Michael Owens.