The Australian market “continues to be one of the Warranty Group’s key areas of focus in the region and globally” following a restructure earlier this year.

The company specialises in underwriting and administering extended warranty schemes, and has operated in Australia for about 20 years.

Its MD for Australasia Scott Grimshaw left the company in May and his position was made redundant.

Asked if the company’s Australasian operation is now being managed from Singapore, the company’s Chicago-based VP of Marketing Bob Bean told insuranceNEWS.com.au “our in-country operations are still being run from our Australia office”. 

Mr Bean says Asia-Pacific VP Manfred Schmoelz, who was appointed in December, “has spent much of his time repositioning our Asia-Pacific operations, including Australia, by building a structure that will provide even greater value to our clients and their customers”.

Under the changes introduced by Mr Schmoelz, “the most senior position in each of our Asia-Pacific offices is head of sales and country”.

Alan Brewis, who joined the Warranty Group in January from National Underwriting Agencies, holds this position in the Australia and New Zealand office, which is based in Melbourne.

“Each in-country functional manager then reports into the head of sales and country position,” Mr Bean said. “The repositioning of the region has created an avenue for same-time support, with functional heads now being located in both Australia and Singapore, where previously these positions resided in our head office in Chicago.  

“We feel these changes will better enable us to support our client needs in a more timely manner.”