Tower cuts costs in trustee business

By Phil Boeyen, ShareChat Business News Editor

Tuesday 17th October 2000

The trustee arm of New Zealand financial services company Tower is looking to save around half a million dollars a year by reorganising its services.

Tower Trust plans to centralise back office processing in Dunedin, with job losses possible in the trustee's other offices around the country.

New Zealand general manager, Glenn Clark, says the changes will be made in key areas from the start of next year.

"We are introducing the latest customer relationship technology to enhance services to our clients and we expect to make savings of nearly half a million dollars a year."

Mr Clark says the move to centralise processing to Dunedin will free up the trust's client account managers to spend more time with their clients rather than with files and papers.

"The time is right to reorganise the business to meet the demands of the increasingly competitive market. We need to ensure that we are in the best position to deliver top quality services to our clients and that the business is efficient - this is especially important for a company which is part of a listed entity, like Tower."

Tower certainly needs to do something right to win back the favour of its disgruntled shareholders, who have seen their investment slipping while shares in other insurers like AMP and Axa have been making gains.

One of the few times Tower shareholders have seen the light in the past year was on the strength of takeover rumours, when the shares finally went above their issue price.

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