Insurance claims management firm Town & Country Assistance is to launch a pan-European expansion that will see its fleet customer base rise to nearly one million vehicles.

The UK-based firm is expected to launch in France, German and the Netherlands, with Spain and Italy also under consideration as part of its plans to at least triple the size of its accident management fleet of 250,000 vehicles.

Expansion plans have been drawn up following its sale to business process outsourcing firm WNS (Holdings) for an undisclosed sum this month (Fleet News July 11).

The expansion takes its accident management fleet to at least 750,000 vehicles, according to Bolton Agnew, a partner in Town and Country who is also managing director of Practical Car and Van Rental.

He said: 'With the backing of WNS we have the scale of backing behind us that means we should be able to win a large part of the market against bigger players.

'Our UK business growth will be enhanced through being associated with a global player such as WNS, while we also have the benefit of their back office capabilities.

'In three years, we want to be one of the top accident management providers and claims handlers.'

As well as 250,000 accident management units, Town and Country handles 120,000 motor claims a year. It was originally created to deal with the accident management requirements of Practical Car and Van Rental.

WNS, which has British Airways as a key shareholder, includes finance, accounting, customer relationship management, HR and benefits administration in its portfolio of outsourcing services.

Agnew added: 'They are leaving us to focus on our expansion. We are now seen as the insurance and fleet arm of WNS.

'Their scale enables us to attract the attention of much larger customers that we used to.'