Engage Mutual jobs and office under threat in Family Investments merger

The Harrogate-based assurance and savings business, which has £900m in assets, 500,000 members and more than 200 employees, revealed merger plans in September.

If the move is approved by both mutuals at a vote in December, all Engage policies and members will transfer to Family Investments from April 1 2015.

According to a proposed terms, the transfer will create “opportunities for greater effciencies which is likely to result in a number of redundancies”.

The combined organisation’s head office will be moved to Brighton, home of Family Investments.

While the merger is expected to take up to three years to complete, the terms only commit to maintaining a North Yorkshire presence for two years.

A spokeswoman for Engage Mutual said in bringing together two firms there is “bound to be a degree of overlap, which is likely to have some impact on headcount”.

She said: “Should we get members’ approval we will examine the resource requirements of a combined organisation in more detail, consulting with our staff throughout.”

In regards to its Harrogate office, she said the joint entity is “still scoping the shape of the business”.

Engage chief executive Peter Burrows previously denied the merger amounted to a takeover by its larger rival.

Family Investments has £4.9bn in assets from two million members.