Safeco to Lay Off, Reassign 240 Workers

Safeco Corp. has announced plans to lay off or reassign 240 employees as part of a restructuring aimed at cutting $75 million from the insurance company’s annual expenses by the end of the year.

Most of the employees affected will lose their jobs, Safeco spokesman Paul Hollie said, adding that the cuts will happen nationwide and across all departments.

The Seattle-based company has about 9,000 employees in the United States, about a third of them in the Puget Sound area. Over the past three years, Safeco’s work force has been trimmed from 11,000 by both job cuts and the sale of its life insurance and investments business.

The company disclosed its layoff plans Wednesday in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, stressing that its goal is to become a “low-cost insurance provider” and “a more nimble and efficient competitor.”

Safeco said the restructuring will result in pretax charges of $10 million to $15 million in severance costs and up to $15 million for real-estate consolidation.

Earlier this year, Safeco sold its campus in suburban Redmond and a property in Portland, Ore. It plans to close on the sale of a building in Spokane in the fourth quarter.

Hollie said Safeco’s cost-cutting efforts are not designed to prepare the company for sale.

Safeco shares slipped 50 cents to $57.8 in early trading Thursday on the Nasdaq Stock Market, after closing up 11 cents Wednesday at $58.35. The stock has been trading between $49.09 and $58.87 over the last year.