UNIFI to consolidate several operations
August 30, 2010 by Matt Olberding
UNIFI to consolidate several operations
By MATT OLBERDING / Lincoln Journal Star | Posted: Friday, August 27, 2010 4:20 pm |
UNIFI Companies plans to consolidate several functions in its life insurance operations, a move that will affect nearly 50 jobs companywide, an unknown number of which will be in Lincoln.
Scott Stuckey, a spokesman for UNIFI Companies’ life insurance operations, said six functions that are now performed by employees at Ameritas Life Insurance Corp. in Lincoln and Union Central Life Insurance Co. in Cincinnati will be consolidated to one city or the other.
Lincoln will become the home for:
•the customer service call center for life insurance;
•annuity new business and servicing operations;
•and servicing for variable products, such as variable life insurance and variable annuities.
Cincinnati, which is home to Union Central Life Insurance, another UNIFI company, will become the home for:
•life and disability new business development;
•fixed-life insurance and disability income services;
•and life insurance, disability income and annuity claims operations.
Stuckey said the changes will take place over the next several months.
A Friday memo from UNIFI President and CEO JoAnn Martin to employees, which was sent to the Journal Star, said 46 positions will be affected.
But Stuckey said that does not necessarily mean 46 people will be losing their jobs. He said there will be opportunities for employees whose jobs are being moved to apply for new jobs for which they are qualified that will be coming to their bases of work.
Stuckey said employees who aren’t able to find new jobs within the company will be given severance packages.
Martin, in the memo to employees, said the economy is not improving at the rates UNIFI had anticipated, necessitating the “company’s need to improve its cost structure.”
“While the company’s financial position is strong and earnings are improving, we are not yet generating the revenues needed to afford our cost structures,” she said.
UNIFI, which is the mutual holding company for Ameritas, Union Life and other related companies, has, like many insurance companies, struggled during the recession. The company lost nearly $274 million in 2008, and although it rebounded to earn more than $56 million in 2009, sales of its life insurance products continued to decline.
According to its 2009 annual report, life insurance sales fell 27 percent over the previous year, annuity sales were down 18 percent, and sales of disability income products were down 6 percent.
Reach Matt Olberding at 402-473-2647 or molberding@journalstar.com.