News Room

October 3, 2002

Assurant Group Announces Plans to Build New Operations Centre in Canada

Company Poised to Become One of Kingston, Ontario's Largest Private-Sector Employers

ATLANTA/MIAMI/KINGSTON: Assurant Group, a leading provider of specialty risk management programs for the financial services industry, and the Kingston Economic Development Corporation (KEDCO) today announced plans for Assurant to build a new operations centre in Kingston, Ontario.

Phase one of the project calls for construction of a $6.4 million, 45,000 square-foot, single-level building that will accommodate about 400 employees. The facility will include a 252-seat call center, 80 claims associates and related management and support staff. Construction is scheduled to begin later this month.

Assurant said plans for the 14.5-acre building site on Gardiner’s Road allow for future expansion, including construction of a second building that could accommodate up to 300 additional employees.

The project will enable Assurant to consolidate support operations now located in the Toronto metropolitan area, position the company to better support the growth needs of its Canadian clients and service some U.S.-based accounts. Approximately 150 jobs from two Toronto offices will transfer to Kingston when the new centre opens in early summer 2003.

KEDCO said that when the new centre is fully staffed, Assurant would move into the position of Kingston’s third largest private sector employer, behind DuPont Canada and StarTek, Inc.

"Today’s announcement provides another excellent example of how Kingston competes and wins business in the global marketplace," said Stephen Kelly, KEDCO’s president and chief executive officer. "By competing on our strengths, we have successfully attracted two new top-level private-sector employers to Kingston, played a major role in growing a third company – Bell Canada – and created roughly 1,900 new jobs, all within two years."

Headquartered in Atlanta and Miami, Assurant is the world’s leading provider of creditor insurance and related products, including extended service contracts. Its products and services are offered through banks, credit card companies, retailers, auto dealers and other businesses in the United States and Canada. Assurant companies also operate in Argentina, Brazil, Denmark, Ireland, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom.

Steven Phillips, managing director of Assurant Group’s Canadian operations, said the company reviewed data from 416 communities across Canada before selecting Kingston. He said that factors influencing the selection of Kingston included the quality of the city’s labor force, its competitive labor and facility costs and its accessibility to the other company operations and locations.

"Consolidating our Canadian support operations positions Assurant to better support the growth needs of current clients and grow our business in Canada," he said. "We are very excited about the prospects for Kingston and the important role that this new centre will play in the future of our company."

Assurant currently has about 185 employees in the Toronto metropolitan area. The company will continue to maintain a headquarters office in North York with approximately 35 sales and finance employees.
KEDCO’s Kelly said that the Assurant announcement caps a remarkable two years for KEDCO, its partners and for community prosperity. "We have tremendous capacity, and we need to continue to build on our strengths and work toward identifying new sectors in which Kingston can compete."

Tapp Development Corporation of Oklahoma and Farrington Design Group of Atlanta are overseeing development of the project. Canadian architects, engineers and contractors will be used to implement Assurant’s plans and for actual construction.

Assurant is part of Fortis, an international financial services provider active in insurance, banking and investment. At yearend 2001, Fortis had total assets of more than $400 billion. Fortis ranks 31st based on assets and 85th based on revenues on the Fortune ‘Global 500’ (July 22, 2002) and 38th on the Forbes Global ‘Super 50’ list (July 3, 2002). Fortis is listed on the Amsterdam (FORA), Brussels (FORB) and Luxembourg (FOR LX) stock exchanges and has a sponsored ADR program (FORSY) in the United States.

Editor’s Note: Fortis is headquartered in Belgium and the Netherlands and is not related to Fortis Inc. of Canada, a utility holding company in St. John’s, Newfoundland.

Assurant Group is a service mark of Fortis, Inc.
Financial information as of December 31, 2001.

Media contact

Cormac Evans
KEDCO
613.544.2725, ext. 240
E-mail: evans@kingstoncanada.com

James A. Sykes
Director, Corporate Communications
Assurant Solutions
260 Interstate N. Circle, SE
Atlanta, Ga. 30339-2111
Telephone: 770.763.1015
FAX: 770.859.4325
E-mail: james.sykes@assurant.com

Reference: 0216