The high street recruiter Manpower has won a contract to find 200 direct salespeople for the insurance giant American Life.

The door-to-door salesforce will be responsible for selling low-premium products such as critical illness, healthcare and redundancy cover to people in Scotland.

A subsidiary of AIG, one of the world’s largest insurance companies, American Life is seeking to expand further into the Scottish market.

It currently has a workforce of less than 50 people working across offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Stirling.

Its decision to return to direct selling comes at a time when rivals in the industry are moving towards a cheaper, call centre-based format.

Paul Douglas, contract manager for Manpower in Scotland, believes that if the decision proves to be successful for American Life, the recruiter is likely to be asked to find candidates to fill similar vacancies.

“We are already recruiting sales and branch managers for American Life,” he said. “I think we were chosen because of our market reach in Scotland. Because of the type of salespeople they are looking for, there is huge potential for growth. At the moment they are covering the central belt in Aberdeen which is pretty much untouched,” he said.

Walter Gardner, regional manager for American Life in Scotland, said: “We have very ambitious expansions plans in Scotland, and to date have been impressed with the quality of candidates being introduced to us.”