Cheshire-based company adding jobs after moving to new office [New Haven Register, Conn.]

Oct. 3—CHESHIRE — IAT Insurance Group is growing at a time when many companies are retrenching with the possibility of an economic downturn looming on the horizon.

The specialty insurer will expand its 30-person Connecticut workforce by about 50 percent in the next year or so, said Bill Cunningham, the company's chief executive officer. IAT is headquartered in North Carolina, but Cunningham and members of its executive team are based out of a new 24,000 square foot office at 1157 Highland Ave.

"We're really in a growth mode," Cunningham said. "We plan to fill up our new space."

IAT is able to expand its workforce because it is among the top six insurers serving the long haul trucking industry, he said, and one of the top two insurers covering companies in the moving and storage business. The company also is in the surety performance bond business, which involves providing financial guarantees that large scale projects will be completed, according to Cunningham.

IAT has about 1,000 employees in more than 30 locations nationwide.

The company bought its new building for $1.9 million in July 2021, according to municipal land records. Since then, IAT officials made a multi-million investment in converting the space, which had previously been filled with doctors' offices.

Andrew Martelli, Cheshire's economic development coordinator, said the planned expansion of IAT's workforce "will bring more good paying jobs into town."

"I've talked with other economic development directors and there's a lot of town's with high vacancy rates," Martelli said of the state's office space market. "And here is a company that is in our town taking over an entire building."

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