The Insurance Locator

Swinton acquires Budget Retail Branch Network

The current annual income of over £ 500, with 442 branches and more than 2 million policies.

Swinton Group, the UK's largest chain of High Street Insurance, today bought the high street insurance intermediary business Budget Retail from the Budget Group.

The deal continues the growth strategy of Swinton, giving the company annual revenues of more than £ 500 million, solidifying its position as a leader a UK insurance intermediary.

Swinton 350 existing branches of the main street (including the Lenox brand, acquired in 2002) are now joined by 92 Budget branches offer home insurance, car insurance, travel insurance, insurance, PET and many other forms of personal life coverage.

The mark of Budget Retail will remain for 12 months, after which the branches will be negotiated with one of the brands Swinton.

Patrick Smith, Chief Executive of Swinton, said: "This agreement means we have more than three times the national coverage of our nearest competitor. We are within easy reach of almost everyone in the United Kingdom. This gives us a huge advantage over our main competitors who only offer telephone or Internet contact. "

"Research shows that when customers need help with your insurance impersonal IVR is strongly rejected by most people. Our teams of professionals, working across the UK, give us a great opportunity to tap our personal service operated through local subsidiaries, either face to face or by telephone. Our growth has shown the success of the obvious benefits of providing this personal service.

All branch personnel budget will being used by Swinton. The total number of employees from Swinton is now 3,000, made up of staff working in branches, call centers and central office functions.

Since the supply side will also take over Swinton budget taxi home and motor units based in Warrington and Coventry respectively.

About 230,000 policies Swinton is added to the database and the combined operation will be over 2m insurance policies.

Patrick Smith He added: "We have strategic plans to continue this growth and enhance our current business capacity, increasing our customer base through improved in direct marketing, increased diversification of our products and increase the relationship between our branches and our online business.

"We intend to keep all the new branches open, because we believe that the budget coverage is complementary to our existing network and increased to take in the giants of our industry and show that, by caring more for our clients, we can become the leading provider of personal insurance market. "

Last year, Swinton had a gross premium income of £ 440 million and expects premium income to grow to over £ 600 million next year after purchase today. The company has conducted over 250 broker acquisitions during the past five years.

Cobbetts LLP acted as legal advisors and Swinton received advice from Ernst & Young.

For more information and Swinton for interviews with CEO Patrick Smith, contact Andrew Spinoza or Jaime Markey SKV PR on 0161 236 9909,

About the Author:

Swinton Group was acquired by its parent company MMA Insurance in May 2001. http://www.swinton.co.uk/

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com – Swinton Acquires Budget Retail Branch Network