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PEARL RELOCATES
The Pearl Group is to relocate its London headquarters and five regional offices to Peterborough in a move involving 2,000 jobs.
Pearl has obtained a 20-acre site at Peterborough Business Park, on which it will develop a 250,000 square feet building at a cost of￡25 million.
Construction is planned to start next spring, with the new building ready for occupation two years later. In the meantime, Pearl will start moving staff into temporary accommodation in Peterborough later this year.
It is the second major endorsement of Peterborough by the Pearl Group.
Some years ago, Pearl Assurance obtained a I0-acre site from the Peterborough Development Corporation at Thorpe Wood for its computer and accounts centre.
The 400 staff who currently work at Thorpe Wood will transfer to the new offices and the older building, says Pearl, "will be surplus to requirements and will be further developed as an investment."
A further 1,600 staff employed by the Group will be given the opportu- nity to move to Peterborough. Pearl estimates that its relocation decision will create an annual demand of between 200 and 300 jobs in the Peterborough area.
Group Chairlnan Einion Holland said: "To maintain its position as one of the UK’s leading life offices, Pearl must be able to offer its customers the products they want at the right price.
"This requires the combination of operational flexibility and efficiency and low costs, which it would have been impossible to achieve at our existing Chief Office.
"The ability to centralise our opera- tions in Peterborough and to develop the most up-to-date computer systems which only a purpose-designed build- ing will allow, will bring important long-term benefits for our customers, shareholders and employees."
Pearl has occupied the same High Holborn building since 1915. Now the entire building is in need of major refurbishment, but no decision has yet been made about its development.
It is estimated that among the long- term savings created by the move to Peterborough will be running costs of ￡1 million a year, and London weighting of ￡2 million.
Peterborough beat off competition from other places because of Pearl’s experience of the successful earlier relocation, and because of the quality of the site at the business park.
For Peterborough, it is the biggest single relocation out of more than 420 firms attracted since the city’s expan- sion programme began, beating the move of travel organisation Thomas Cook from London to Thorpe Wood which involved more than 1,000 jobs.
Development Corporation General Manager Kenneth Hutton said: "This is the best news we have had. We have been working on this project for many months, and we knew that Pearl was looking at several other places very seriously. Peterborough won because it was the best." When the new building is complete, Pearl’s Thorpe Wood building will ...

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