FAST growth which has yielded a 40 percent increase in staff this year has led private health insurance specialist Chase Templeton to move its headquarters to spacious new offices in Darwen.

Following a £150,000 capital investment the broker has relocated from offices at Blackburn’s Enterprise Centre to its own two-storey building at Arkwright Court.

Sited just off junction four of the M65 the new-build facility has doubled the company’s office space to house its existing 35 staff and national operations.

It can also accommodate a further doubling of the workforce which the company anticipates it will achieve as it pursues a successful 'buy and build' strategy.

The company has already completed 10 acquisitions this year while organic growth is currently running at nearly 10 per cent.

Chief executive officer Warren Dickson said: "It has been a tremendous year for the business but the best is still to come.

“Acquisitions this year have added some £15million to our annual premium income and the plan is to further accelerate our purchase of brokers and health insurance books whilst nurturing organic growth.”

He added: “Our business model works only if we take exceptionally good care of the clients we service following acquisitions – otherwise we’re buying fresh air. That means we need to have in place additional staff before we complete on a deal so that we can properly manage the integration of clients.

“This of course means that we will be recruiting in the coming months and years to build upon our existing position as one of the UK’s leading private medical insurance specialists.”

Since being founded by chairman Kevin Amphlett in 2002 Chase Templeton has grown to serve over 35,000 individual and corporate clients and employs more than 55 staff in Lancashire and its offices in Bridgwater, Somerset.

Its annual premium income – the value of the policies it sells – is now close to £100million with turnover exceeding £12million.