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St. Paul Travelers


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http://www.courant.com/business/hc-travele...dlines-business

Now they just have to move the HQ back to Hartford where it belongs (and build that twin tower that was originally planned....)

I have a few friends that work there and my mother has for over 25 years. I think they will be coming home soon. Employment levels have remained steady in CT while in MN, the Headquarters :whistling: , they have already lost over 500 jobs. A bad sign for MN, but good for CT.

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I have a few friends that work there and my mother has for over 25 years. I think they will be coming home soon. Employment levels have remained steady in CT while in MN, the Headquarters :whistling: , they have already lost over 500 jobs. A bad sign for MN, but good for CT.

Great news, but do you have anything besides anecdotal evidence that you may be holding back for company loyalty reaasons????

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Great news, but do you have anything besides anecdotal evidence that you may be holding back for company loyalty reaasons????

Unfortunatly that's all I have. This is a quote from the St. Paul Pioneer Press. They are very nervous in St. Paul, and I think it's warranted the way this deal has turned out for them. It's also shows their comittment to Hartford that they saved the GHO and have rebranded it "The Travelers Tournament" now that the "St. Paul" is being removed.

The change reflects the continuing evolution of the company since the 2004 merger of The St. Paul Cos. and Hartford, Conn.-based Travelers Property Casualty Corp. to create the nation's second-largest business insurer.

Paul Newsome, an insurance analyst for A.G. Edwards & Sons, said the change to one main brand makes sense, but he questions whether it is the first step toward "completely getting rid of the St. Paul name and the headquarters in St. Paul."

Travelers Article from St. Paul Pioneer Press

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It would be pretty sweet if they came back, and had to build more offices. With a potential end result of having a company bigger than what Travelers was before the buyout, CT would stand to gain a lot in both prestige and quality jobs.

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It would be pretty sweet if they came back, and had to build more offices. With a potential end result of having a company bigger than what Travelers was before the buyout, CT would stand to gain a lot in both prestige and quality jobs.

Well, Hartford and the Travelers are already synonomous. The prestige never really left. It will be great to get one of our fortune 500's back officially, and bigger and better than ever. I'll take it. I really really doubt they will keep the HQ in St. Paul, it just makes no sense. The workforce in St. Paul is tiny compared to what it is in CT. The real headquarters is where it's alway been, Hartford. Now we just have to get the corporate headquarters back. The whole thing was a buy out, not a merger. They moved the headquarters and kept the name to make it appear like "a merger of equals" when in reality St. Paul was much smaller and financially in peril. They were the oldest company in St. Paul, so it was unlikely to gain approval from MN without keeping the HQ there and the name, initially. It was all a trick, with an end result of coming home to Hartford already planned as the end result.

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I think its terrible whenever a company picks up stakes and moves its HQ or moves a major presence out of a specific area.

However, we have been on the ass-end side of so many company relocations/reorganizations over the past 10 years (MassMutual to name one) that I have trouble feeling bad. I am cautiously optimistic that this might be the first step towards an even more expanded presence for Travelers in Hartford.

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The workforce in St. Paul is tiny compared to what it is in CT.

Isn't the Twin Cities metro bigger than the entire state of CT?

I think its terrible whenever a company picks up stakes and moves its HQ or moves a major presence out of a specific area.

However, we have been on the ass-end side of so many company relocations/reorganizations over the past 10 years (MassMutual to name one) that I have trouble feeling bad. I am cautiously optimistic that this might be the first step towards an even more expanded presence for Travelers in Hartford.

I agree. A lot of the "boom" cities helped themselves by taking jobs away from the established cities, and had no quarrels with it. In New London County, we lost all of our manufacturing companies, most notably Norwich-based Thermos, to lower taxed, high growth areas. We're still one of the best area to be located if you are looking for a good pool of highly educated workers. I know there's a lesson I learned as a child to keep in mind how others feel when doing something, but this isn't personal it's business.

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Isn't the Twin Cities metro bigger than the entire state of CT?

I agree. A lot of the "boom" cities helped themselves by taking jobs away from the established cities, and had no quarrels with it. In New London County, we lost all of our manufacturing companies, most notably Norwich-based Thermos, to lower taxed, high growth areas. We're still one of the best area to be located if you are looking for a good pool of highly educated workers. I know there's a lesson I learned as a child to keep in mind how others feel when doing something, but this isn't personal it's business.

I was only referring to Travelers' workforce in St. Paul. Which is less than half the size of what's in Hartford. It makes no sense for Travelers as a company to be headquartered in St. Paul and everyone there knows it.

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The CEO had a good point, which was that a logo in and of itself is meaningless, it's how the company is perceived that gives the logo meaning (what the *** is that Nike Swoosh anyway???). I don't think people will connect a winged shield to Mercury to thievery.... way too esoteric (not that I'm a huge fan of the logo).

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The CEO had a good point, which was that a logo in and of itself is meaningless, it's how the company is perceived that gives the logo meaning (what the *** is that Nike Swoosh anyway???). I don't think people will connect a winged shield to Mercury to thievery.... way too esoteric (not that I'm a huge fan of the logo).

Ah, Jay Fishman, now that guy is a charactor. He's a long time Travelers Guy so none of this is really surprising.

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Travelers IS a Hartford company. Plain and simple. St. Paul was just an illusion.

The majority of the employees are in Hartford. It's like ultimately the will of the company as a collective will be to come home. I don't see how it wouldn't happen.

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It would be pretty sweet if they came back, and had to build more offices.

haha, how many offices would you like Travelers to have in Hartford? When I worked there (for SNET, I was in-house in Travelers for 2 years) they had about 8 different buildings pretty filled up in downtown, including a large portion of CityPlace...

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haha, how many offices would you like Travelers to have in Hartford? When I worked there (for SNET, I was in-house in Travelers for 2 years) they had about 8 different buildings pretty filled up in downtown, including a large portion of CityPlace...

Heh .... maybe they can dig up the old Cutter design and build it as their new headquarters, with Hartford operations consolidated into the one building...

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Travelers also has a good sized presence in the Windsor corporate area in and around Day Hill Rd.

It depresses me every time I go over to Day Hill Rd. Imagine if even half of those offices were in the city. What a difference that would make.

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Travelers also has a good sized presence in the Windsor corporate area in and around Day Hill Rd.

It depresses me every time I go over to Day Hill Rd. Imagine if even half of those offices were in the city. What a difference that would make.

An American Airlines reservation Center is on Day Hill in Windsor. Windsor has less taxes, so that is why the companies moved out there. I wouldn't mind seeing companies relocating to Hartford, but hartford needs to improve its BUSINESS CLIMATE (read -- less taxes) before you'll see -- CUTTER getting BUILT.

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An American Airlines reservation Center is on Day Hill in Windsor. Windsor has less taxes, so that is why the companies moved out there. I wouldn't mind seeing companies relocating to Hartford, but hartford needs to improve its BUSINESS CLIMATE (read -- less taxes) before you'll see -- CUTTER getting BUILT.

True Hartford really needs to improve it's business climate. Although I think improvements have been made in that area, but still a lot more needs to be done.

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True Hartford really needs to improve it's business climate. Although I think improvements have been made in that area, but still a lot more needs to be done.

drc:

True. Hartford is getting better in terms of business climate, but it needs more. Connecticut needs some tax cutting politicans to be elected, but they love taxes there.

JimS

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True. Hartford is getting better in terms of business climate, but it needs more. Connecticut needs some tax cutting politicans to be elected, but they love taxes there.

Hartford's like a black hole when it comes to tax dollars. All that money the casinos give the state every month, and this area gets next to nothing in casino impact dollars. Meanwhile, state taxes have not gone down...

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Hartford's like a black hole when it comes to tax dollars. All that money the casinos give the state every month, and this area gets next to nothing in casino impact dollars. Meanwhile, state taxes have not gone down...

Come now, it's not quite a black hole. It's still the most important city in the state. I don't care what anyone says. Politically and Economically CT's Economy is tied to Hartford. The Casinos are still dwarfed compared to our corporations in terms of taxes to the state and job creation. We do have to keep Hartford up. Really we need more state money around here if you ask me. We are the one stuck as a social services center with far too much tax exempt land. Now I'm not saying SE CT shouldn't be getting more of the Casino money, but we definately are not a black hole. When all is said and done the state will be pleased with the investment in Hartford.

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Come now, it's not quite a black hole. It's still the most important city in the state. I don't care what anyone says. Politically and Economically CT's Economy is tied to Hartford. The Casinos are still dwarfed compared to our corporations in terms of taxes to the state and job creation. We do have to keep Hartford up. Really we need more state money around here if you ask me. We are the one stuck as a social services center with far too much tax exempt land. Now I'm not saying SE CT shouldn't be getting more of the Casino money, but we definately are not a black hole. When all is said and done the state will be pleased with the investment in Hartford.

One interesting number I'll throw out for when Travelers is a CT HQ company again - they have higher revenues than either MCDONALDS or COCA-COLA.

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drc:

True. Hartford is getting better in terms of business climate, but it needs more. Connecticut needs some tax cutting politicans to be elected, but they love taxes there.

JimS

That's all the legislature does these days, tax and spend. Although some strides have been made, including getting rid of the corperate surcharge tax, which is a start.

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Come now, it's not quite a black hole. It's still the most important city in the state. I don't care what anyone says. Politically and Economically CT's Economy is tied to Hartford. The Casinos are still dwarfed compared to our corporations in terms of taxes to the state and job creation.

I'm sure the big companies are responsible for the better paying jobs and without them CT's economy would crumble, but in terms of tax revenue I'm not too sure if they pay more than the casinos. The casinos pay close to $40 million to the state each month just in slot revenue. The tribes also control taxable land, and the 20,000+ jobs, while mostly on the lower end, are still huge.

I wonder if there have been any studies regarding the econmic impact of the big employers; I'd like to see who's done the most for the state between some of the big companies such as Aetna, Pfizer, United Technologies, the casinos, and the rest of the big employers.

BTW: When I said "black hole" I meant the state government not the city of Hartford. Seriously, where does all this money go and why doesn't the state invest more of it in the area that has to deal with the casinos?

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Interesting to say the least. Does the Courant know something we don't?

Return Of The Umbrella?

Citigroup Reviews Branding; Travelers Mum On Its Intentions

By DIANE LEVICK

Courant Staff Writer

June 21 2006

By DIANE LEVICK -- Citigroup just might dump the red umbrella logo that it got from Travelers 14 years ago.

But would the Hartford-based insurer seek to reclaim the city's best-known corporate icon?

Courant Article

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