insurance founded 1957 1957 founder ken scowcroft headquarters manchester united kingdom number of locations more than 200 products home insurance motor insurance business insurance caravan insurance bike insurance van insurance taxi insurance owner cov a sgam number of employees more than 3 000 website www.swinton.co.uk swinton insurance is a uk insurance retailer that was established in 1957 . 1 it has more than 200 branches across the united kingdom and in excess of 3 000 employees . 2 the company offers a range of insurance products from a panel of uk insurers covering car bike home commercial taxi and caravan insurance . 3 contents 1 history 2 accolades 3 advertising 4 sponsorship 5 controversy 6 references 7 external links history edit swinton was founded in 1957 by ken scowcroft born 1928 4 who began the car insurance brokerage business from the front room of his semi detached house in swinton salford . 5 the first premium cost just over 5 and in the first year he sold around 100 policies to local people . 6 swinton insurance branch in headingley leeds the first swinton branch was opened in 1964 in salford and the branch network originally expanded in the manchester region before then expanding out to the north west of england . 7 swinton insurance 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 that is now common amongst major uk insurers . 8 in 1981 ken scowcroft s son brian scowcroft joined the business and worked in a number of different roles including finance director 9 before being appointed joint chief executive in 1985 . 10 in 1988 swinton was sold to sun alliance 11 for 130m 12 and in 2001 it changed hands again when it was acquired by mma holdings uk plc. . 13 which is in turn owned by cov a sgam soci t de group d assurance mutuelle . in 2002 the swinton insurance group acquired the specialist caravan and motorhome insurer safeguard 14 and then in 2004 they acquired manchester based insurance group deansgate insurance . 15 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 . 16 their position in the northern ireland market was further bolstered with the acquisition of open direct in 2009 . 17 the swinton insurance group continued their uk wide acquisition strategy in 2012 with the purchase of greys insurance in burnley . 18 in 2013 they then purchased stroud based insurers alexander james commercial 19 before agreeing a deal to buy the general insurance book of north wales based anderson insurance services in 2014 20 and the cleethorpes based c h turner insurance consultants . 21 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. 22 accolades edit swinton insurance has been shortlisted six times at the british insurance awards . it won personal lines broker of the year in 2005 and again in 2008 23 when the awards were held at the royal albert hall and hosted by comedian rob brydon . 24 in 2014 and 2015 swinton group ltd was listed as one of the top 50 insurance brokers in the united kingdom by the insurance times . 25 in november 2015 swinton insurance was listed 16th in the inaugural ft glassdoor best places to work in finance and consulting uk rankings . swinton is a feefo trusted merchant 2016 a unique accreditation which is based on the experiences of genuine purchase verified customers and reflects consistently high scores in customer service over the course of 2015 . 26 swinton rose nine places to second place in the auto express best car insurance companies 2016 rankings up from 11th in 2015 . 27 advertising edit swinton insurance was the first insurance broker to advertise on the television in the 1960s . 28 in the 1980s swinton were known for tv adverts featuring a man with big glasses . 29 in the 1990s swinton insurance ran a tv commercial starring lady penelope creighton ward and her butler aloysius parker . 30 the tv commercial was directed by thunderbirds creator gerry anderson and featured recreated models made by david sisson models . 31 as part of this advertising campaign an additional tv commercial was created featuring thunderbirds character brains . 32 in addition adverts also ran featuring emmerdale actor john middleton 33 and the animated tv characters of the flintstones . 34 after an absence of seven years swinton returned to uk tv screens in 2014 in a tv advertising campaign fronted by britain s got talent winners attraction shadow theatre group . 35 sponsorship edit from 1985 1993 swinton sponsored the swinton handicap hurdle a grade 3 national hunt hurdle race that is held every year at haydock park racecourse . swinton insurance is the main sponsor of swinton lions rlfc for 2016 . controversy edit in 2009 swinton was fined 770 000 by the financial services authority fsa for mis selling payment protection insurance ppi policies . 36 in july 2013 swinton was fined 7.4 m by the financial conduct authority fca in relation to sales of monthly insurance products sold by telephone between april 2010 and april 2012 . 37 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 . 38 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 39 meri huws for prohibiting call centre staff from using welsh when discussing details of financial products with welsh speaking customers in wales . 40 references edit swinton insurance page on their formation and history swinton staff and branch numbers swinton insurance product offering from bloomberg s company profile kenneth scowcroft year of birth guardian article on brian scowcroft the son of kenneth scowcroft swinton history and cost of original insurance policy and amount sold history of swinton insurance from the guardian june 2004 men article on the history of swinton insurance link to information on brian scowcroft the guardian interview with brian scowcroft swinton s sale to sun alliance headed by brian blake evening news confirmation of swinton sale figure acquisition of swinton insurance in 2001 by mma swinton insurance details of safeguard acquisition manchester evening news report on acquisition of deansgate insurance details of swinton s growth by 2008 details of swinton acquiring open direct insurance swinton insurance acquire greys insurance acquisition of alexander james insurance swinton insurance acquisition of anderson insurance services acquisition of ch turner in cleethorpes insurance age article on new ceo appointment at swinton insurance british insurance awards list of finalists and winners 1995 2014 swinton named broker of the year 2008 insurance times top 50 uk brokers 2014 feefo trusted merchant the badge of trust online . www.feefo.com . retrieved 2016 03 17 . best car insurance companies 2016 . retrieved 2016 08 02 . swinton insurance first uk insurance broker to advertise on tv man with big glasses tv advert on youtube swinton thunderbirds commercial on youtube david sisson models page on the thunderbirds tv commercial for swinton insurance swinton brains tv commercial on youtube youtube link for tv advert featuring john middleton youtube advert for swinton featuring the flintstones swinton press release on returning to uk tv screens with attraction final notice to swinton group ltd pdf . financial services authority . 28 october 2009 . retrieved 2014 03 25 . fca fines swinton group limited 7.38 million for mis selling monthly add on insurance policies financial conduct authority . financial conduct authority . 16 july 2013 . retrieved 2014 03 25 . the journal article on swinton insurance fines and customer apology welsh language commissioner s findings swinton criticised by welsh speaking commissioner external links edit official website retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title swinton insurance & oldid 743593418 categories insurance companies of the united kingdom1957 establishments in englandcompanies based in manchesterhidden categories pages using infobox company with unsupported parameters navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to 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