The Sovereign General Insurance Company in Calgary celebrated 60 years in business on Tuesday.

The company was originally founded in Montreal in 1953 with the name Merit Insurance Company. At that time the company focused on personal lines of insurances.

Sovereign took on its current name in 1974 after Merit merged with a subsidiary. By the mid-1980s, Sovereign began to focus on commercial lines of insurance and to distribute its products across Canada through independent brokers. Sovereign was bought by The Co-operators in 1987.

Currently, Sovereign employs 270 people in eight regional and services offices across Canada. In 2012 Sovereign had a gross written premium of $295.8 million.