Swinton Insurance

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]

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