Henry Engelhardt-Admiral-2016

Admiral Group has given each of it 8,000 employees £3,600-worth of free shares through its employee share scheme.

The motor insurance firm rewarded its staff with the free shares after achieving a record profit before tax of £377 million in 2015, 6% higher than in 2014.

The employee share scheme has been in place at Admiral Group since 2004.

Henry Engelhardt (pictured), group chief executive officer at Admiral Group, said: “I would describe 2015 as the year of the uncut diamond. When the year started many people thought it would turn out to be a lump of coal. But no, 2015 was no lumpy coal year.

“The work we did on the UK business in terms of rate increases ahead of the market and the continued attention to operational detail amongst other things, all led to an excellent economic outcome.”