By ROY WOOD

It will take a few months, but gradually the familiar Eisenhut Insurance logo will disappear from downtown Osoyoos, just as Echlin Insurance has vanished from Oliver.

Both formerly local companies are have become part of the Surrey-based and rapidly expanding Westland Insurance Group, which now has four Okanagan locations, including Penticton and Kelowna.

Eisenhut is the most recent Westland acquisition, which has been in effect for just over a week. Echlin was acquired by Westland in early 2015 and the name on the building was changed shortly after said office manager Sharon Laine.

“We will have to change the (Eisenhut) name to Westland at some point in time,” company vice-president for retail Steve Sache said in an interview Tuesday. “It’ll be in the next few months we will start to see some of the signage change and some of the letterhead change.”

He added, however, “We will use ‘formerly Eisenhut Insurance’ because there’s a lot of value in the brand that’s been built over 40 years plus.”

The Osoyoos company was established in the 1960s by Paul Eisenhut and has been operated by his son Doug, who recently announced the sale and his retirement after 40 years in the business.

Local office manager Belmira  Mota remains in place, as does the rest of the staff.

Mota said in an interview the staff was surprised by the announcement earlier this month but “we’re all pretty good” with the changes even though “obviously, we’ll miss Doug.”

Sache said that while the size of the parent company does provide some economies of scale, “from a staffing perspective, we still need the same people doing the same customer service jobs.”

It is possible, he said, that even more staff will be needed because of Westland’s mandate to provide expanded hours of service, including evenings and Sundays.

Such longer hours of operation would be in response to consumer demand. “A lot depends on the local trade area and what the community expects. … If customers demand it, we will expand hours.  (But) it doesn’t work for all communities (and) we listen to local management.”

With 64 locations in BC and nine in Alberta, Westland is becoming a major player.

The company started as a single broker in Delta, BC in 1980. As recently as March 2010 it had just 35 offices. “We would like to continue to grow,” said Sache, “(but) we’re careful not to grow too quickly.”

He said the company is driven by “a strong entrepreneurial spirit. … “If we’re not growing, we’re not moving in the right direction.”