HUNDREDS of Fylde insurance workers feared for their jobs this week as Guardian Royal Exchange looked set to be sold for the second time this year.

Axa Sun Life, which bought GRE in January, was today expected to announce whether it has reached a deal to sell GRE's life assurance arm - probably to Aegon, a Dutch insurance group which already owns Scottish Equitable.

Some 500 of the 1,300 workers at Lytham's former GRE office in Ballam Road are employed in life assurance - and they have lived with uncertainty about their job prospects since GRE first went on the market last November. Axa has been deciding whether to integrate GRE life assurance and pensions with Sun Life's existing network or to sell them, but indications this week were that a sale is most likely.

However, the impact of any job losses will be counterbalanced by Lytham being designated a general Axa Sun Life head office for administration and information technology staff, some being transferred from an axed office in Kendal.

Said one Lytham worker: "It has been a year of uncertainty, but we have a very professional workforce with a superb record who would be an asset to any company. At the moment we are all just waiting to hear what will happen."

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