Company type | Subsidiary |
---|---|
Industry | Insurance |
Founded | 1957 |
Founder | Ken Scowcroft |
Headquarters | Embankment West Tower, 101 Cathedral Approach, Salford M3 7FB , United Kingdom |
Products | Home insurance, motor insurance, business insurance, caravan insurance, bike insurance, van insurance, taxi insurance |
Owner | Markerstudy Group [1] [2] [3] |
Number of employees | More than 1,500 |
Website | swinton |
Swinton Insurance is a UK insurance retailer that was established in 1957. [4] [5] The company offers a range of insurance products from a panel of UK insurers covering car, bike, home, commercial, taxi and caravan insurance. [6]
Swinton was founded in 1957 by Ken Scowcroft (born 1928 [7] ) who began the car insurance brokerage business from the front room of his semi-detached house in Swinton, Greater Manchester. [8] in the first year, he sold around 100 policies to local people. [9]
The first branch was opened in 1964 in Salford, and the branch network originally expanded in the Manchester region before it expanded throughout the North West of England. [10] It was then merged with Denbury Insurance owned by Brian Blake, retaining the Swinton Insurance name. The company became the first insurance franchise and the first to introduce a computer quotations system, which is now common in major UK insurers. [11] In 1981, Ken Scowcroft's son, Brian Scowcroft, joined the business and worked in a number of different roles including Finance Director [12] before being appointed Joint Chief executive in 1985. [13]
In 1988 Swinton was sold to Sun Alliance [14] for £130m [15] and in 2001 it changed hands again when it was acquired by MMA Holdings UK Plc., [16] which is, in turn, owned by Covéa SGAM (Société de Group d'Assurance Mutuelle).
In 2002, The Swinton Insurance Group acquired the specialist caravan and motorhome insurer, Safeguard, [17] and in 2004, it acquired Manchester based insurance group Deansgate Insurance. [18]
By 2008, Swinton had become the third largest insurance retailer in the UK, and the largest in Northern Ireland, managing over three million individual car, home and life insurance policies. [19] Their position in the Northern Ireland market was further bolstered with the acquisition of Open + Direct in 2009. [20]
The Swinton Insurance Group continued their UK-wide acquisition strategy in 2012 with the purchase of Greys Insurance in Burnley. [21] In 2013, they then purchased Stroud based insurers Alexander James Commercial [22] before agreeing a deal to buy the general insurance book of North Wales-based Anderson Insurance Services in 2014 [23] and the Cleethorpes based C H Turner Insurance Consultants. [24]
Chief executive Christophe Bardet stepped down at the end of December 2014 and was succeeded by Gilles Normand, formerly the CEO of MMA Holdings UK Plc. [25] Gilles Normand stepped down as CEO in October 2018 and was replaced by Scott Kennedy as Managing Director. [26]
Ardonagh Group purchased Swinton in September 2018 for £165million. [27]
Swinton Insurance was the first insurance broker to advertise on UK television in the 1960s. [28] In the 1980s, Swinton ran television commercials featuring a 'Man with Big Glasses'. [29]
In the 1990s, Swinton Insurance ran a television commercial campaign featuring characters from the television programme Thunderbirds . [30] [31]
Other commercials have featured Emmerdale actor John Middleton [32] and the animated television characters of The Flintstones . [33]
In 2009, Swinton was fined £770,000 by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) for mis-selling payment protection insurance (PPI) policies. [34] In July 2013, Swinton was fined £7.4m by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in relation to sales of monthly insurance products sold by telephone between April 2010 and April 2012. [35]
Chief executive Christophe Bardet stated that Swinton had notified these problems to the Financial Services Authority in March 2012 and co-operated fully with the FCA. Swinton acknowledged its shortcomings in its sales practices during the specific period in question, and the company unreservedly apologised to customers. [36] After instigating a full review of the business after his appointment in December 2011, Bardet announced a comprehensive transformation of the business with a three-year, £75m investment programme.
In May 2014, Swinton Insurance was criticised by Welsh Language Commissioner [37] Meri Huws for banning call centre staff from using Welsh when discussing details of financial products with Welsh-speaking customers in Wales. [38]
Aon plc is a global professional services firm that offers a range of risk-mitigation products. Aon has approximately 50,000 employees across 120 countries.
Insurance is a means of protection from financial loss in which, in exchange for a fee, a party agrees to compensate another party in the event of a certain loss, damage, or injury. It is a form of risk management, primarily used to protect against the risk of a contingent or uncertain loss.
Financial services are economic services tied to finance provided by financial institutions. Financial services encompass a broad range of service sector activities, especially as concerns financial management and consumer finance.
Aviva plc is a British multinational insurance company headquartered in London, England. It has about 19 million customers across its core markets of the United Kingdom, Ireland and Canada. In the United Kingdom, Aviva is the largest general insurer and a leading life and pensions provider. Aviva is also the second largest general insurer in Canada.
Chubb Limited is an American-Swiss company incorporated in Zürich, and listed on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) where it is a component of the S&P 500. Chubb is a global provider of insurance products covering property and casualty, accident and health, reinsurance, and life insurance and is the largest publicly traded property and casualty insurance company in the world. Chubb operates in 55 countries and territories and in the Lloyd's insurance market in London. Clients of Chubb consist of multinational corporations and local businesses, individuals, and insurers seeking reinsurance coverage. Chubb provides commercial and personal property and casualty insurance, personal accident and supplemental health insurance, reinsurance, and life insurance.
Axa S.A. is a French multinational insurance corporation headquartered in the 8th arrondissement of Paris. It also provides investment management and other financial services via its subsidiaries. As of 2023, it is the largest financial services company by revenue in France, and the 4th largest French company.
RSA Insurance Group Limited is a British multinational general insurance company headquartered in London, England. RSA has major operations in the United Kingdom, Ireland, Scandinavia and Canada. It provides insurance products and services in more than 100 countries through a network of local partners. It has 9 million customers. RSA was formed by the merger of Sun Alliance and Royal Insurance in 1996.
Esure Group plc is an Internet and telephone based insurance company based in Reigate, Surrey, England. It also has offices in Manchester and Glasgow. The company was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by Bain Capital in December 2018.
HSBC UK Bank plc is a British multinational banking and financial services organisation based in Birmingham, England. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of the global HSBC banking and financial group, which has been headquartered in London since 1993. The UK headquarters of HSBC is located at One Centenary Square in Birmingham.
Bennetts is a specialist insurance broker for motorcycles headquartered in Peterborough, with a contact centre in Coventry, owned by Lucida Group since May 2021.
BGL Group is a financial services company based in Orton Southgate, Peterborough, England. Its main lines of business are vehicle and home insurance, with a range of supplementary products such as breakdown cover, legal protection and personal accident cover.
Liverpool Victoria, trading since May 2007 as LV=, is one of the United Kingdom's largest insurance companies. It offers a range of insurance and retirement products.
Co-op Insurance is the trading name of CIS General Insurance, a general insurance company, which is part of the Co-operative Group, based in Manchester, United Kingdom. Co-op Insurance Services, an insurance intermediary incorporated in 2017, is a wholly owned subsidiary of CIS General Insurance.
Brightside Group is an insurance broking and financial services business in the UK. The company was incorporated in 2006, is based in Bristol with offices in Southampton, and Torquay.
Comparethemarket is a UK price comparison website, founded in 2006, that is part of the BGL Group. The website also offers other on-line companies the ability to provide their customers with a co-branded or white labelled comparison service.
Ageas is a Belgian multinational insurance company co-headquartered in Brussels. Ageas is Belgium's largest insurer and operates in 13 countries worldwide. The company was renamed from Fortis Holding in April 2010 and consists of those insurance activities remaining after the breakup and sale of the financial services group Fortis during the financial crisis of 2007-2010.
Intact Financial Corporation is a Canadian multinational property and casualty insurance company. Originally established in 1809 as the Halifax Fire Insurance Association, it was later acquired by Nationale-Nederlanden; from 1993 to 2009, it was a subsidiary of the Dutch multinational ING Group under the name ING Canada. Intact Financial directly underwrites insurance through its subsidiary companies Intact Insurance and Belair Insurance, as well as operating additional brokerage, insurance service, and damage restoration subsidiaries. As of 2017, Intact was the largest provider of property and casualty insurance in Canada by annual premiums.
Mortgage Choice Limited, commonly known as Mortgage Choice, is an Australian mortgage broking firm.
Covéa is a French mutual insurance company that covers property, liability and reinsurance businesses headquartered in Paris. It was formed from the merger of three separate French mutual insurance companies Garantie Mutuelle des Fonctionnaires (GMF), Mutuelle d'assurance des artisans de France (MAAF) and Mutuelle du Mans Assurance (MMA).
The Financial Conduct Authority v Arch Insurance (UK) Ltd & others [2021] UKSC 1 is a United Kingdom Supreme Court case determining whether commercial insurance policies for business interruption cover claims due to the COVID-19 pandemic and consequent lockdowns. The case has implications on disputed business interruption claims worth at least £1.2 billion and affecting 370,000 businesses, primarily in the hospitality and entertainment sectors. On 15 January 2021, the Supreme Court found in favour of the claimants.