Britannia Building Society

Infobox_Company
company_name = Britannia Building Society
company_
company_type = Building Society (Mutual)
company_slogan = "Building a fairer society"
foundation = 1856
location = Leek, England, UK
key_people = Rodney Baker-Bates, Chairman (new appointment in 2008)
Neville Richardson, Chief Executive
num_employees = 5,000
branches = 254
industry = Banking and Financial Services
products = Savings, Mortgages, Investments,
Loans, Credit Cards, Insurance
net_income = £49.3 million GBP (December 2007), 13.5% on 2006
assets = £36.8 billion GBP (December 2007), 4.8% on 2006
homepage = [http://www.britannia.co.uk/ http://www.britannia.co.uk/] The Britannia Building Society is one of the major UK mutual building societies remaining today, with headquarters in Staffordshire, England. Britannia is the second largest building society in the United Kingdom based on total assets of £36.8 billion at 31 December 2007. [ [http://britannia.co.uk/news/financial_results/PDF/prelimresults2007.pdf Britannia Building Society] Financial Report, 2007] It is a member of the Building Societies Association.

Britannia Building Society provides financial services both directly and through more than 250 branches. Britannia is an important provider of both mortgages and savings in the UK, as well as commercial lending. Britannia also has an agreement with AXA to provide life, pension protection and investment products through its branches.

History

Britannia traces its history back to 1856, when the Leek and Moorlands Permanent Benefit Building Society was formed. The Society evolved into today's Britannia through a series of mergers, notably with the NALGO Building Society in 1960, the Westbourne Park in 1965 (leading to a change of name to Leek and Westbourne) and with the Eastern Counties (as Leek, Westbourne and Eastern Counties) in 1974. A further merger in 1975 with the Oldbury Britannia Building Society saw the change of name to Britannia.

Bristol and West Acquisition

The most recent acquisition was the savings arm and branch network of former building society Bristol and West (with approximately 700,000 savings customers). This was the first major re-mutualisation in the United Kingdom (following the earlier demutualisation trend) and brought membership of the enlarged society to nearly 3 million. [ [http://britannia.co.uk/news/financial_results/PDF/prelimresults2006.pdf Britannia Building Society] Financial Report, 2006]

* 2005
** 21 September: The transfer of the Bristol and West Branch and Contact Centre network is completed. 94 retail branches from the Bristol and West are now trading as Britannia. 50 Staff at Parkway and 150 staff at Temple Quay now work for Britannia Bristol, as the former Bristol and West is now called.
** 12 December: Britannia announces its intention to relocate all former Temple Quay and Parkway staff to a new location. It is believed that the new location will be based in the centre of Bristol.

* 2006
** 03 July: Britannia Building Society staff based at Temple Quay and Parkway Stoke Gifford sites will begin the move into new premises at Tower Wharf, Cheese Lane Bristol. This represents the final stage of the take over of the former Bristol and West Retail and Direct business. On the same day all former Bristol and West Retail and Direct customers will transfer onto the core Britannia computer systems. This has been one of the biggest projects that the Britannia IS team has worked on.

Trivia

Britannia are the official sponsors of Stoke City FC, who will play the 2008-09 season in the Barclays Premier League, and lend their name to the stadium. They also sponsor Ipswich Town's west stand at Portman Road, the Britannia Stand. This stand is the largest in the Football League Championship.

In 2008 many employees took part in the Times newspaper employee satisfaction survey and they made it to number 2 in the large company category.

External links

* [http://www.britannia.co.uk/ Britannia Building Society]
* [http://www.kpmg.co.uk/pubs/98126%20Building%20Societies%20database%202008_accessible.pdf KPMG Building Societies Database 2008]

References