WAWANESA INSURANCE
SOME THINGS NEVER CHANGE Wawanesa Insurance strengthens Manitoba roots as it celebrates 125 years of growth
our community and our province.” To say Wawanesa Insurance has come a long way would be an incredible understate- ment. Today, the company has about 5,700 employees — that’s nine-and-a-half times more than the entire population of the Village of Wawanesa. In Manitoba alone, Wawanesa Insurance employs 1,300 people, making it a top employer in the province. It all started with two Wawanesa resi- dents — Alonzo Fowler Kempton and Charles Kerr — who, over a campfire and a jar of whiskey, had an idea to team up with local farmers and insure their highly combustible threshing machines at lower premiums. With 20 farmers pitching in $20, The Wawanesa Mutual Insurance Company was born, and today it remains
The company’s new North American head- quarters is set to open in 2023 in the heart of downtown Winnipeg. The building — the fifth tower in the massive mixed-use devel- opment that is True North Square — will feature 23 floors and 34,932 square metres (376,000 square feet) of office space. “When we look at our new headquarters, under construction now and set to open in 2023, we see our history, our future and our continued commitment to Manitoba,” says Graham Haigh, Wawanesa’s senior vice- president and chief marketing officer. “It will serve as an essential hub of our op- erations, and we’re proud to keep growing in Manitoba. Establishing our North Ameri- can headquarters in the heart of Winnipeg reflects our deep commitment to this city,
TRINA REHBERG BOYKO O n Fourth Street in the rural Mani- toban community of Wawanesa, two buildings bear the Wawane- sa Insurance name. The smaller one-storey building, built in 1901, is the early home of the insurance company — a step up from the rented room above the local drugstore that saw the com- pany’s start in 1896. Across the street sits a larger brick build- ing, erected nearly 30 years later. What once served as the headquarters for Wawa- nesa Insurance remains the company’s head office, with its executive office in Winnipeg and branches spread throughout Canada and the U.S.
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SUMMER 2022
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