that is written like an advertisement . please help improve it by removing promotional content and inappropriate external links and by adding encyclopedic content written from a neutral point of view . august 2011 learn how and when to remove this template message merchants insurance group type mutual insurance company industry insurance founded 1918 buffalo ny headquarters 250 main street buffalo ny 14202 number of locations 675 agents 3 regional offices area served northeast and n. central u.s. key people robert m. zak president & ceo products personal and commercial insurance number of employees 323 slogan earning your business every day . website merchantsgroup.com merchants headquarters in buffalo ny merchants insurance group is a regional property and casualty insurance company headquartered in buffalo new york . the company provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance throughout the northeast and north central united states . the company has regional offices in hauppauge new york ; manchester new hampshire ; moorestown new jersey . merchants insurance group comprises three companies merchants mutual insurance company merchants preferred insurance company and merchants national insurance company . merchants preferred commenced business in 2007 to rebuild and expand its preferred risk business after the sale of a like subsidiary 1 and merchants national commenced business in 2009 . 2 each of the merchants companies are rated a excellent by the a.m. best company . merchants employs over 300 insurance professionals throughout its operating territories and works with more than 1 000 independent insurance agents . the company offers insurance in massachusetts michigan new hampshire new jersey new york ohio pennsylvania rhode island and vermont . contents 1 history 2 philanthropy 3 references 4 external links history edit merchants insurance group was founded on march 5 1918 the day merchants mutual liability company opened for business with urban f. jehle as president . mr. jehle owner and operator of a grocery store in buffalo returned from a grocers convention with the idea of bringing merchants together for the mutual protection of their delivery vehicles . j.r. young a local insurance man owen b. augspurger a buffalo lawyer and c.w. brown a civil engineer joined with him . 3 in the late 1930s and early 1940s the company name was merchants mutual casualty company . 4 in february 1957 merchants began to offer both casualty insurance and property insurance and changed its name to merchants mutual insurance company to reflect this development . in the 1960s the company moved into its current headquarters a five story office building located on main street in buffalo . philanthropy edit merchants insurance group supports a variety of charitable causes for organizations in the communities in which it does business most notably the united way and the american cancer society . in addition to merchants direct financial support to many charitable organizations merchants also sponsors an employee based committee known as colleagues in action cia . colleagues in action allows merchants employees to participate in a variety of activities raffles auctions and casual days the proceeds from which are donated to these groups . combined the company and employees contributed almost 312 000 from 2003 through 2014 to charities with a total of 31 994.50 raised in 2014 . citation needed 5 references edit hartley thomas business first of buffalo merchants group sold for 70.8 m november 1 2006 http www.bizjournals.com buffalo stories 2006 10 30 daily30.html staff reporters insurance journal merchants insurance group s new e & s subsidiary ok d in 10 states february 13 2009 http www.insurancejournal.com news national 2009 02 13 97908.htm merchants insurance group celebrates 90 years in buffalo continues growth march 4 2008 http www.merchantsgroup.com 90th anniversary.pdf buffalo new york city directory 1938 & 1941 merchants insurance group 12 year employee charitable giving reaches nearly 312 000 pdf . external links edit merchants insurance group retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title merchants insurance group & oldid 739700742 categories insurance companies of the united statesmutual insurance companieseconomy of buffalo new yorkcompanies based in buffalo new yorkhidden categories articles with a promotional tone from august 2011all articles with a promotional toneall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from february 2009 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload as pdfprintable version languages add links this page was last modified on 16 september 2016 at 12 07 . text is available under the creative commons attribution sharealike license ; 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