A UK digital-first general insurer offering car, van, bike and home cover, with graduate programmes in Bexhill, Leicester and London.
Hastings Direct is a UK insurance company that sells car, van, bike and home insurance, mostly to people who buy online, through an app or over the phone. Insurance is a promise: you pay a regular amount, and if something goes wrong, such as a crash or a burst pipe, the insurer pays towards putting it right. Hastings describes itself as "a data and digitally focused general insurance provider to the UK market". It also sells extras such as breakdown cover and legal cover, and offers a telematics product called YouDrive, which uses a small device in the car to measure how someone drives.
Wikipedia says Hastings Direct was established in 1997, based on a business plan by David Gundlach and Andrew Bowen. Its head office is in Bexhill-on-Sea, East Sussex, on the south coast (Conquest House, Collington Avenue, according to an insurance trade directory), with a second large site in Leicester. Wikipedia describes it as one of the largest employers on the South Coast, and Tobias van der Meer has been chief executive since March 2018. TARGETjobs put the company at around 3,500 colleagues as at 2023.
We did not find a short mission statement. In a 2026 graduate listing Hastings calls itself a digital insurer that aims to become the "best and biggest" in the UK market, says it has over 4 million customers, and talks about a "4Cs" culture and treating customers fairly and respectfully. Those are the company's own claims. Elsewhere it describes its workplace as "dynamic, flexible, fun and constantly changing".
Its main brands include Hastings Direct, Hastings Premier and Hastings Essential, alongside YouDrive, People's Choice and InsurePink (Wikipedia). Behind the scenes, teams handle claims (helping customers after an accident), pricing and data analytics (working out what a fair price is for each risk), fraud prevention, finance, HR and technology. Its early careers programmes have covered data analytics, HR, finance, claims and technology, including a Year in Industry placement.
For school and college leavers, Hastings runs apprenticeships, with sites in Bexhill, Leicester and London. A Claims Handler apprenticeship advertised in 2026 was based in Leicester city centre, paid £26,230 with full-time employment from day one, and asked for an A level at grade C or above completed within the last two years. It included a 10-week training academy and a Level 3 apprenticeship with a Chartered Insurance Institute qualification; applications closed on 22 June 2026. Apprentices answer customer calls after an incident and help start a claim. For graduates, a two-year Claims Operations and Transformation programme (2026 intake, based in Bexhill) started at £33,000, accepted any degree subject, and closed on 5 February 2026. Both are closed now, so check the Hastings careers page for the next intake. Benefits listed include 25 days of holiday and a pension matched up to 10%, and visa sponsorship was not offered.
Website: www.hastingsdirect.com
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