TUCKED away in Amesbury’s Solstice Business Park is one of the fastest growing companies in the UK.

Animal Friends is not your usual insurance company, neither are Elaine and Chris Fairfax the corporate face of a soulless company.

When speaking about their love for animals and people it was easy to see why they have so quickly managed to build from scratch such an impressive organisation.

But when asked what was the most important thing about the business, both were quick to reply that it was the staff.

Elaine said: “From my point of view, it is really important to retain your staff. We have to go through lengthy training so we put a lot in to make sure our staff are up to the correct standard. When you get them there it makes sense to work hard to make sure they are happy.

“I think when you look around there is free parking, we have subsidised food, we have a high-tech gym, pool tables and games room so we try to make sure they are happy.”

Chris added: “We are even going to set up a laser-combat facility for the staff. We used to take the staff to Longleat and they used to love the laser combat so we decided to build our own on site. It is great for team building and it puts departments against each other.”

Animal Friends sold its first policy in 2002 but it is really just in the last few years that it has seen an explosion in growth, this year becoming the Investec 14th fastest-growing mid-market company.

These are underlined by their figures with the company going from having 12,000 policies in 2008 to 450,000 today, producing revenues of £60 million and it is something Elaine puts down to caring for their customers.

She said: “Lots of people realise that it is important to have a pets specialist, not a supermarket.

“All our staff are very knowledgeable about cats and dogs.

“The customer likes that we are 100 per cent based in the UK and we are all based in the same building.

“We also don’t have any limits on how long a customer can talk on the phone to one of our operators, we understand that losing a pet can be a really traumatic time and sometimes the customer just wants to talk.”

Aside from the care they take with their staff, Chris also spoke about how the company is a market leader in developing software meaning that now some of their customers are receiving same-day payments.

He said: “We won the Insurance Times Broker Claims Initative of the Year for our Pawtal software that will pay out customers on the same day. It was described as a ‘game changer’ and our vets love it because obviously they suffer from cashflow problems.”

The company currently employs 120 people from the local area but are planning more to expand in the New Year.

“The future is that we want to be the number-one animal insurance company and we think that will be quite achievable,” Elaine said.

“But when we get there, we want to stay there, because you don’t do all the work to get to number one only to go back to number two again.”