AMP Overseas

AMP launched its first overseas venture only six years after its formation, with a part-time agent Mr J.A. Gilfillan and medical referee William Davies appointed to launch the business in Auckland in 1854. The New Zealand arm of AMP would prove to be enormously lucrative and integral to the ongoing success of the Society. 

When AMP launched in New Zealand the local population was less than 100,000 and AMP's customer base was largely miners and farmers, but after establishing the business in Auckland, within ten years AMP had opened agencies in cities including Wellington, Lyttleton, Christchurch, Dunedin, Nelson, Oamaru, Invercargill, and New Plymouth.  

In 1871 AMP established a local board and head office in Wellington on Featherston Street with a view to shoring up business across the Tasman, which was under threat by the newly established Government Life Insurance Office at the time. The local board met an astonishing 53 times in its first year and considered approximately 25-30 proposals at each meeting (Blainey, 1999).

With the local business in New Zealand booming, a new office opened on Featherston Street in Wellington in 1877 to replace the original office, employing a staff of twelve people. 

A contributing factor to the early success of AMP's New Zealand business was the Society's first full-time agent Benjamin Short. Short, who had commenced with AMP in Sydney, relocated to New Zealand in 1871 and spent 9 years transforming the business there before returning to Australia.  

The business generated in New Zealand was essential to assisting AMP weather the severe economic depression in Australia in the 1890s, with the New Zealand economy far less impacted. 

A new AMP building at 86 Customhouse Quay in Wellington was erected in the 1920s, opening in 1925. This ornate new building featured marble, sandstone and granite finishes and was the tallest building in Wellington at the time, at a height of 31 metres. AMP eventually built three different iterations of its offices on this site, with a presence there right up until 2009 when the building was sold to German investors for almost $30 million.  

With business tracking so well in New Zealand, the AMP Board was keen to expand further into overseas markets and in 1886 the board announced its decision to open a branch in London. However, numerous concerns stalled the plans including fears from some policyholders that the Society would move its administration to London and that the entire venture would be too expensive. Two key factors motivated AMP to continue to pursue the idea. Firstly, Australia was becoming home to many British immigrants and AMP believed it was wise to familiarise potential new customers with the AMP name prior to their arrival in Australia. Secondly, one of AMP’s main rivals in Australia, Colonial Mutual, was planning to open its own London office.

To open a new branch, it was necessary for the majority of members to approve, and it was not until January 1906 that this was achieved. Despite this, the losing side, led by Gerald Ross Campbell, took the matter the Supreme Court of New South Wales and England’s Privy Council, delaying the opening of AMP’s London Branch until July 1908 (Blainey, 1999). The new London Office finally opened in rented offices in Southsea House at 37 Threadneedle Street.

Unfortunately, the opening of the London Office was not a resounding success. The name AMP was well-known in Australia, but in Britain it meant little. Despite AMP engaging agents and canvassers as far afield as Manchester, Liverpool, Dublin, Belfast, and Edinburgh, the business struggled. In the first full year only 364 policies were sold, and half were sold by one agent in London, Mr H.C. Nettleton (Blainey, 1999). British life offices commonly paid their agents commissions on both the original policy and renewals, but AMP refused to do so, and this arguably impacted the quantity and quality of agents it attracted. Business was so slow that staff found themselves filling their time running errands for the Sydney Office and locating birth certificates for Australian policyholders who had emigrated to Britain (Blainey, 1999).

Business did slowly improve over the next several years, however the impacts of the First and Second World Wars were immense. It was until the 1960s that AMP channelled far more resources into improving its business in Britain. Newly appointed manager Ray Craig oversaw the opening of thirteen new offices in Britain in the 1960s and its staff grew from 37 to 144 (Blainey, 1999). The Society began to enjoy hard-earned success with offices in locations including Manchester (opened in 1959), Birmingham (opened in 1960), Glasgow (opened in 1961) and a second office in London's West End at No 1 Regent Street (opened in 1961).