Farmers to Close 21st Century Insurance Call Center in N.Y.

Los Angeles-based Farmers Insurance Group is continuing its integration effort with 21st Century Insurance, an auto insurance company it acquired from American International Group for approximately $1.9 billion in 2009.

This month, Farmers announced that it will be closing a 21st Century Insurance call center in Vestal, N.Y., in March 2014. There are some 225 personnel working at the Vestal facility.

Most of the employees at the call center would be offered positions at other facilities around the country and some would be offered a work-from-home option as well, Farmers said. There are currently some 12,000 employees working at 21st Century Insurance across the country.

“We are trying to give people as much advance notice as possible. This won’t take effect immediately,” Farmers spokesman Mark Toohey told Insurance Journal. He said Farmers is in the last stage of its integration efforts that came about with its acquisition of 21st Century Insurance.

He said there are 225 jobs at the Vestal call center and the company expects that 75 percent of the employees at the facility would be offered other jobs within the company and some will also be eligible to work from home.