2020 marked the launch of our new five year business plan to grow Domestic & General and expand our horizons. Despite the challenges the Covid-19 pandemic brought, our 2,900 employees were able to deliver an essential service to our 16 million customers across the UK, Europe and Australia. At the peak of the crisis, our partnership with salutetheNHS.org helped deliver 1 million meals to frontline NHS staff working in hospitals all over the UK.
In 2019 we were pleased to announce that Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) had bought an investment in Domestic & General, alongside CVC’s continuing commitment as the majority shareholder.
Our new ownership structure, underpinned by two very stable and well-resourced global investors, provides a strong platform enabling us to focus on our 5 year modernisation and growth plan, which includes the digitalisation of our customer journeys, increasing our product portfolio and international expansion.
We have big plans in place to keep growing so if you’d like to be a part of it, take a look at our current vacancies.
In 2013, Domestic & General was acquired by CVC, bringing us new opportunities and resources. And in 2014 we came first in the Sunday Times 250 Top Track rankings, a league table which recognises Britain’s leading mid-market growth companies.
The new millennium saw Domestic & General launch specialist protection for satellite TV equipment. To support this, we acquired a contact centre company called Inkfish. With this came a new site in Brighton which we still use today. It allowed us to expand our contact centre capability into outbound and telesales, a crucial element of sales operations. And in 2006, Head Office employees moved into a brand new building on Worple Road, Wimbledon.
Four new offices opened during these 10 years, including premises in Spain and Germany. In 1996, we opened our first contact centre in Nottingham. To provide a better repair experience, we moved away from a pay and claim system, resulting in the rollout of white, brown, and heating service networks in 1996.
This was an important decade for us, bringing together WAICO and Domestic & General Insurance Co. Ltd. By 1988, Domestic & General was listed on the London Stock Exchange and the following year we reached 1 million customers.
In 1971 the Copley family reorganised their interests and the family acquired control of the whole company in 1978. This resulted in WAICO entering the white goods market for the first time in 1977 and insuring its first washing machine. This was quickly followed by an expansion into the heating market with the launch of boiler breakdown cover.
Telesurance’s growth in popularity saw it run a series of advertisements in the Radio Times. The company also exhibited at several annual trade shows, often drawing in large crowds with celebrity autograph signings. In 1966, Telesurance became Domestic & General Insurance Co. Ltd., and the company expanded its TV cover to include colour and older TV sets.
Television sets enjoyed a boom in popularity in the 1950s, thanks in part to televised events like Queen Elizabeth’s Coronation in 1953. Reg T. Sharpe, a director of a company that dealt largely with motor insurance, joined forces with Harold Curtis, Secretary of the Radio and Television Retailers Association (RTRA). Together, they launched television breakdown cover under the Telesurance brand.
The early 1920s saw the company’s management react to the failure of a number of reinsurance companies by making prudent provision for bad debts, allowing the company to enter the 1930s in a strong position.
As a young adult Samuel emigrated to Perth, Western Australia. He became involved in property development, cattle-raising and public transport. Unable to find a company that would insure cattle during transit from the United Kingdom, he formed WAICO in July 1912. WAICO quickly expanded into eastern Australia and started operating in London from 1914. During the First World War the company grew steadily, offering various types of insurance, including War Risks, Marine, General and Life. A bank, ‘Copley’s’ was opened in 1919, and company offices were opened in various UK locations.
Domestic & General’s story starts with Samuel William Copley, founder of The Western Australian Insurance Company (WAICO), who was born in Huddersfield, England. As a child, he worked in his father’s many businesses which included a barbershop, mineral water production and baking havercakes (a type of bread made from oats and water).