News Room

August 6, 2003

Assurant Group Completes Lawton Center Expansion

Risk management firm created 170 new jobs over past 12 months

LAWTON, Ok: Assurant Group today celebrated completion of an 18,000 square-foot, multimillion-dollar addition to its Lawton, Okla., customer contact center with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and facility tours for local government and business leaders.  The company said the expansion has enabled it to relocate business from other company facilities to Lawton and to increase employment here from 230 to about 400 over the past 12 months.

“We continue to be very pleased with our experience in Oklahoma,” said John Owen, executive vice president and chief operating officer for Assurant. “In less than three years, this facility has become our largest customer contact center, responsible for serving several of our largest and most important clients.”

Assurant’s original 36,000 square-foot facility at 6500 West Gore Blvd. opened in March 2001.  The multimillion-dollar expansion completed this past spring will enable Assurant to increase the facility’s call-handling capacity by about 60 percent and accommodate a total staff of over 500.

The Lawton center provides inbound retention services for banks and credit card companies who provide their customers credit insurance and other debt protection programs underwritten and/or administered by Assurant.  The site also now includes a unit to service extended service contracts that Assurant sells through leading consumer electronics and appliance retailers.

Jacque LaCalli, an Assurant vice president, heads the Lawton call center.  Mark Davis serves as director of contact center operations.

Owen said that Assurant’s ability to meet the needs of its clients includes the delivery of efficient and cost-effective services. “The Lawton center figures prominently in our efforts to become more competitive in what is already a very competitive marketplace,” he said.

“With its large, well-educated labor pool, the Lawton-Fort Sill community has been an excellent source for employees,” Owen said. “This community also has excellent educational institutions with whom to partner for our training needs and very supportive state and local government agencies.”

Owen said Assurant’s contact center operations are growing at a significant rate.  In 2003, inbound volume is projected to increase by a half million calls to about 5.8 million, he said.

In addition to Lawton, Assurant also operates call centers in Miami, Fla., and Toronto, Ontario.  In September, the company will complete relocation of the Toronto operation to a new center in Kingston, Ontario, where staff began accepting calls on July 21.

Tapp Development Corp. of Oklahoma City, Okla., developed the original Lawton callcenter and handled the expansion.  Total cost of the project, including construction and equipment, is estimated at about $4 million.  Assurant leases the site. 

Assurant provides specialty risk management products and services to consumers through partnerships with leading financial institutions, auto and manufactured home dealers and retailers. These products include specialty property insurance, debt protection programs, extended service contracts and certain membership programs.

Headquartered in Atlanta and Miami, Assurant does business throughout North America, Latin America and Europe.  The company has more than 6,000 employees and operations in 11 states in the United States, Canada, Argentina, Brazil, Denmark, Ireland, Puerto Rico and the United Kingdom.

Assurant is part of Fortis, an international financial services provider active in the fields of insurance, banking and investment.

Media contact

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