NU Online News Service, July 1, 2:20 p.m.EDT

Westfield Insurance said it is expanding its commercialinsurance operations into Colorado this year.

The Westfield Center, Ohio-based company's surety office,located in Denver, will be consolidated with its new serviceoffice, the company said.

Middle market field managers Dan Sierra and Shawn Leonard andclaims manager Don Rivkin are currently in Colorado assisting withall necessary preparations to start writing business there. A riskcontrol specialist and underwriting assistant will be ready tosupport business later this year, the company said.

Westfield said it has appointed five agencies and plans toappoint five more by August.

"We decided to expand operations to Colorado because of thesignificant opportunity to diversify and grow in businesses,markets and products that optimize profit," said Westfield'scommercial lines executive, Bart Rahe.

"Adding Colorado to Westfield's operations further diversifiesour book of business by spreading risk across our geographicalfootprint," he explained.

In business for 160 years, Westfield Insurance, a member ofWestfield Group, provides commercial and personal insurance in 18states and surety services to customers in 28 states. The companyis represented by a network of over 1,200 independent insuranceagencies.