DOUBLE anniversaries are being celebrated by a York healthcare provider as it becomes one of the city's fastest growing insurance specialists.

This year marks 110 years since Benenden was founded, and 25 years since the mutual society moved to York.

Based in Holgate Park Drive, Benenden now employs 244 people in York, a figure which has risen by 85 per cent over the past 10 years.

The company celebrates its 110th birthday after being founded as a fund for postal workers with tuberculosis in 1905 by telegrapher Charles Garland.

With quality treatment being too expensive for ordinary workers, a mutual model with low cost subscriptions enabled an initial membership of 30,000 people to access TB treatment.

Since then, the organisation has evolved its range of services and in June 2012 widened membership eligibility which was previously restricted to a specific set of employer groups, primarily the public sector.

Membership became available to any UK resident over the age of 16, which provided the opportunity to reach to a much wider audience through new mediums such as TV advertising.

In recent years, the organisation has diversified its business from a core mutual healthcare offering to providing insurance and wellbeing products such as health assessments and travel insurance – recently rebranding to ‘Benenden’ to reflect these changes.

The newly introduced insurance services are part of the Benenden Wellbeing division, with the Benenden Healthcare Society also incorporating a health cash plan division The Friendly Healthcare Organisation.

Benenden also operates its own charitable trust, which aims to help people who find themselves in financial difficulty due to sickness, disability, infirmity or any other medical condition; and The Benenden Hospital Trust, which provides treatment to members of The Benenden Healthcare Society, those who wish to fund their own treatment and NHS patients through the NHS Choose and Book scheme.

Marie Jones, customer complaints manager, who has worked at Benenden for almost 23 years said: "It’s a fantastic organisation to work for and has been a hugely supportive in terms of offering opportunities for growth and development.

"Over the past 23 years I’ve been lucky to have chances to take on different roles within the organisation and learn a variety of new things.

"It’s been great to see how the company has expanded over the years, but without losing all the elements which make it a great place to work – in particular the flexible working environment and supportive and friendly colleagues."

Giving further reason for celebration this year, Benenden has also been ranked as the top company to work for in York through the Sunday Times ‘Best Companies’ accreditation processes.

The survey ranked companies across the UK based entirely on employee feedback - looking at areas such as leadership, community and the overall happiness of people who work in the organisation.

Benenden were rated the 64th ‘Best Not-For-Profit Company to Work For’ in the UK coming out as the highest ranking York based company overall. Employees at the company scored the organisation particularly highly for pay and benefits in addition to wellbeing.

Sonia Hudson, head of HR at Benenden said: "It’s a fantastic achievement to see these results which are a real endorsement of how we value and support the wellbeing of people who work at Benenden.

"As a company with strong roots in healthcare, the wellbeing and happiness of our employees is crucial to us because we understand the clear connection between health and individual / company success.

"The fact that we rated particularly highly in areas such as ‘fair deal’ demonstrates our commitment to ensuring our people feel valued – offering flexibility and a family-friendly approach.

"We are incredibly proud of how highly we’ve been rated by our employees and we are looking forward to building on this success."

Benenden is also a five-time winner of ‘Most Trusted’ healthcare provider at the 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 Moneywise Customer Service Awards.