A grey cloud that had stubbornly refused to shift from the skies above Perth started to melt away at the weekend.
For months there had been fears that the cloud could burst at any moment and a torrent of job losses would rain down on Aviva’s Pitheavlis office complex.
But the sky seemed a little bluer at the weekend after the insurance giant announced it had purchased the sprawling site outright in a show of “commitment” to the Fair City.
Aviva has not had the best of times in recent years, to put it mildly.
In March the firm was forced to reveal a £3.1 billion after-tax loss for last year, following a £3.3bn write-down it was forced to take on the sale of its business Stateside.
The figure, which compared to a £60 million profit made the previous year, sent shockwaves through the markets and investors headed for the hills.
In a single trading day following the results announcement, £1bn was wiped off the company’s value, although some of that lost ground has since been recovered.
The stock market rollercoaster ride came after a period in which former chief executive Andrew Moss faced humiliation over a shareholder revolt over executive pay, and eventually fell on his sword.
New chief executive Mark Wilson was charged with turning the ship around and implementing a restructuring plan designed to save £400m a year from the company’s cost base.
Operational efficiencies could do so much, but the firm’s 31,000-strong global workforce was also firmly in the line of fire.
Eight hundreds jobs went across the business last year, including around 60 in Perth as a layer of management was stripped out, and it was announced last month that a further 2,000 roles were being axed from the business globally.
Pitheavlis and its loyal workforce of household insurance sales people and commercial underwriters looked vulnerable especially after it was revealed that the company had less than two years left on its rental agreement for the site and a likely expensive renegotiation was in the offing.
However, Aviva pulled a rabbit from the hat on Friday by confirming it had purchased Pitheavlis from its owners. It cited the quality of its staff in Perth as a major factor in its decision.
With a few short words the cloud that had remained for so long started to lift, and with it came relief and congratulations in equal measure.
Finance Secretary John Swinney described the move as a “massive vote of confidence in the city”, while Perth and Kinross Council leader Ian Miller said he was delighted at the decision.
Personally, I too was pleased to hear of Aviva’s commitment to a city that has served it so well down the years.
But for me there is also a note of caution to be sounded among the peels of praise.
Aviva is not yet a company fully recovered from its ills. It remains on the danger list, and chief surgeon Wilson still has the scalpel in hand in order to make the cuts necessary to put the firm on the even keel it requires to achieve long-term sustainable growth.
With that background in mind, Perth cannot see the purchase of Pitheavlis as an opportunity to simply sit on its laurels and enjoy a renewed sense of certainty.
The board will expect a significant return on its investment, and that means that Perth will have to have work harder than ever to justify their place in Aviva’s global portfolio.
The staff at Pitheavlis undoubtedly have the skills required to make a success of things.
And now they have been handed the chance to prove their worth and secure the company’s long-term future in Perth.
It is an opportunity that must be grasped with both hands for the good of both the city and the thousand-plus households that depend on the site for their livelihoods.