Canada Life International Limited (CLI) has unveiled plans for their new purpose-built corporate headquarters at Ballacottier Business Park on the outskirts of Douglas, in conjunction with Dandara Commercial who are the developers. The development is currently under construction and is due for completion in March 2015.
Sean Christian, CLI’s Managing Director commented:
“The search for a new headquarters began back in 2008. Our preference was always to remain in the south of the Island as Castletown has served us extremely well since opening to business in 1987 and I would like to think we have become an important part of the local community. Sadly, after considering the limited number of potential options over the last five years we concluded that there were no viable new developments or existing premises to accommodate our future needs in the south of the Island. The new development at the Ballacottier Business Park provides us with the flexibility to design a bespoke headquarters to cater fully for our future needs as well as providing ample car parking facilities which are not always possible with town centre developments.”
Canada Life International, or Albany International as it was originally called, began in Castletown in 1987 with five staff, occupying the top floor of the old St Mary’s church in Castletown Square and taking over the whole building a few years later as the business grew. In 2000 the business outgrew St Mary’s and expanded into a second office, being Canada Life House on Alexandra Road. At the end of 2010 the company exited St Mary’s and moved into Mill Court while retaining Canada Life House. The company now employs over 140 staff in Castletown and administers close to ?9bn of assets.
Mr Christian commented further:
“We have seen tremendous growth in our business over the years and this has naturally translated into increased staff numbers. Whilst our existing office accommodation has served us well it is far from ideal being split across two separate buildings. We have set an exciting growth strategy for the business over the coming years and with that in mind our new offices on the Business Park have been designed to cater for a potential future headcount of up to 200.”
Canada Life set up a sister offshore life company in Dublin in May 2013 which has outsourced most of its administration back to the Isle of Man operation. Mr Christian added:
“When we set up our Dublin based operation last year there was understandably a number of questions asked by our staff as to where our offshore business would be headquartered going forward. The major investment in a new corporate headquarters by our Canadian parent, Great West Lifeco, is an extremely positive statement not only to our loyal workforce but also to the Isle of Man, our customers and the UK advisory market we serve”.
Seamus Nugent, Managing Director of Dandara added:
“Canada Life is a major international provider to the UK advisory sector and we are delighted to have been engaged by them to design and deliver their new offshore headquarters.
The Isle of Man Business Park is already home to a number of blue chip organisations - our own included - and an ideal base for Canada Life’s operations. This investment clearly demonstrates the company’s long-term commitment to the island and we’re delighted to welcome them as neighbours”.
