Kwik Fit, the British car servicing and repair company, opened in 1971. In response to customer demand, Kwik Fit Insurance, part of Kwik Fit Financial Services, was formed in 1995 and has grown to become one of the UK’s leading car insurance distributors.

Originally employing 130 staff at a single site in Lanarkshire

Lanarkshire

Lanarkshire or the County of Lanark ) is a Lieutenancy area, registration county and former local government county in the central Lowlands of Scotland...

, Scotland, Kwik Fit Insurance has expanded to host almost 1200 employees and now incorporates a second site following the 2007 acquisition of Birmingham

Birmingham

Birmingham is a city and metropolitan borough in the West Midlands of England. It is the most populous British city outside the capital London, with a population of 1,036,900 , and lies at the heart of the West Midlands conurbation, the second most populous urban area in the United Kingdom with a...

 based Express Insurance.

Kwik Fit Insurance core business remains car insurance but they have added consistently to their stable in recent years and can now boast a strong home insurance

Home insurance

Home insurance, also commonly called hazard insurance or homeowner's insurance , is the type of property insurance that covers private homes...

 book, an extensive range of additional car insurance products alongside van, motorbike, pet and travel insurance.

Awards and recognition

Kwik Fit Insurance were recently placed 80th in the Sunday Times 'Best Companies to Work for' list for 2010.

Over the years, the intermediary has been recognised throughout the business community with success at the National Business Awards, British Insurance Awards, Insurance Times Awards, National Training Awards, Customer Contact Association Excellence Awards and the Contact Centre Innovation Awards.

Group Managing Director

Brendan Devine is Group Managing Director at Kwik Fit Financial Services. He left his previous role as Managing Director of GE Money Loans UK in January 2009 to take over at the Uddingston based intermediary. Mr Devine has over 20 years experience within the financial services industry, holding a variety of senior positions with Woodchester Finance and latterly GE Capital and GE Personal Motoring.

Ownership

Kwik Fit Insurance, part of the Kwik Fit group until June 2010, was founded by Sir Tom Farmer and run by him until 1999 when it was acquired by the Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company is an American multinational automaker based in Dearborn, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. The automaker was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. In addition to the Ford and Lincoln brands, Ford also owns a small stake in Mazda in Japan and Aston Martin in the UK...

. A decision by Ford to concentrate on its core business led to the sale of Kwik Fit in 2002 to CVC Capital Partners

CVC Capital Partners

CVC Capital Partners is one of the top five largest private equity firms globally with approximately US$46 billion in funds focused on management buyouts...

. Kwik Fit was sold in 2005 to PAI Partners

PAI Partners

PAI partners is a major European private equity house and is the leading private equity investor in the French market. It is one of the oldest and most experienced firms in the sector with its origins dating back to Paribas Affaires Industrielles, the historical principal investment activity of...

, a European private equity

Private equity

Private equity, in finance, is an asset class consisting of equity securities in operating companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange....

 firm. An announcement was made in June 2010 that Kwik Fit Financial Services has been sold by PAI to Fortis Insurance UK for a figure of £215m. The sale is expected to be completed by the end of the third quarter of 2010.

The Green Insurance Company

The Green Insurance Company was launched in August 2007 as a subsidiary of Kwik Fit Insurance. The Green Insurance Company offer greener car insurance with customers benefitting from low emission discounts and 100% carbon offset

Carbon offset

A carbon offset is a reduction in emissions of carbon dioxide or greenhouse gases made in order to compensate for or to offset an emission made elsewhere....

 for their cars' carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide is a naturally occurring chemical compound composed of two oxygen atoms covalently bonded to a single carbon atom...

 emissions.

Charity

Kwik Fit Insurance has raised over £240,000 for its nominated charities since the creation of its Charity Committee in 2005. This year, the intermediary plans to raise over £40,000 for its charity of the year, Rutherglen High School, which provides education to almost 100 children with special needs. They hope to provide a new minibus, sensory garden and sensory room with the funds raised.

Lollipop Person of the Year

In 2008, Kwik Fit Insurance launched their UK-wide search to find the Lollipop Person

Crossing guard

A crossing guard , a school crossing patrol officer , school crossing supervisor or school road patrol is a traffic management specialist who is normally stationed on busy roadways to aid pedestrians...

of the Year. Schools throughout the country participated with stories, drawings and poems describing why their Lollipop Person should be chosen as the nations finest. Heather Day of St Peters Church of England Junior School won the title in 2008, with John Foley of Bushes Primary School, Paisley picking up the award in 2009.

External links

• Kwik Fit Home Insurance

http://www.insurancedaily.co.uk/2007/06/12/kwik-fit-acquires-express-insurance/
http://www.bestlollipop.co.uk
http://www.greeninsurancecompany.co.uk
http://www.expressinsurance.co.uk/

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