Construction of the 25,000 sq ft building at the Portrack Interchange Business Park starts immediately and the centre will be operational in January 2011. swiftcover.com already has an operations centre in Stockton, so the new development will eventually increase the number of people employed in the area by the insurer to over 800.

The development reflects swiftcover.com's success and dramatic growth in the five years since the company was established, with the business growing by nearly 40% last year alone. The new centre will be home to an expanded customer help team and a brand new IT development department to ensure the company maintains its cutting edge technology and innovation as the UK's only fully online insurance provider.

In addition to the swiftcover.com brand, the new Stockton premises will also provide operations support to AXA Direct, the direct motor insurance service recently launched by AXA, swiftcover.com's parent company. As well as motor insurance, swiftcover.com also provides motorcycle, travel and pet insurance, with new developments planned for the future.

The creation of the new operations centre shows swiftcover.com's commitment to Teesside, where its presence has grown from a single small office when the company was first established in 2005.

Stockton-born Dave Fretter, swiftcover.com's operations director, explains: "swiftcover.com has stayed loyal to Teesside, building on the success of our existing operation and fulfilling our commitment to staff to reward their efforts with our continued support.

"The local workforce is committed and ambitious, and we have supported this with investment in training and career development to maintain swiftcover.com's high levels of customer service and staff retention."

The development is being supported with a grant from One North East, the Regional Development Agency for Teesside.