Royal & SunAlliance - a leading car insurance provider
With a history dating back almost 300 years, Royal & SunAlliance has become one of the biggest car insurance providers in the UK, selling policies to more than 20 million customers throughout the world. Read more about the UK's top five car insurance companies.
With such a vast history it's no wonder that Royal & SunAlliance has developed a huge following of customers who have all at some point in their lives taken out a policy with the company. Many of these customers might not even have a clue that Royal & SunAlliance, a leading insurance provider, started out so many years ago as such a small company.
The Royal & SunAlliance can trace its roots back to 1710 when The Sun was established, making it the oldest insurance provider to trade under its original name. Years before the company was offering affordable car insurance quotes to its customers, The Alliance was founded in 1824 and The Royal was created in 1845, a little over 20 years later.
Long before customers were in need of motor insurance, the groups began to build their presence in the insurance industry during the 18th century and expanding their business to mainland Europe where they were able to offer their services on a larger scale.
In the 19th Century and still long before motor insurance services were being required in the UK, the services of Royal & Sun Alliance expanded even further afield and the company was soon operating in the US, Canada, South America, Australia and Africa. The insurance provider also worked in China and India from 1852 and after having to end their services following nationalism, re-opened again in China in 1998 and in India two years later.
The first merger of the companies took place in 1919 when Royal joined with Liverpool and London & Globe. Several decades later and another merger took place when the Sun joined forces with the Alliance in 1959.
In 1965, two of the world's oldest insurance got it together and became Sun Alliance and London, offering their customers an even better insurance service. The final merger that created the name we know today as one of the UK's leading car insurance providers took place in 1996 when Royal Insurance and Sun Alliance joined forces to become Royal & Sun Alliance.
This merger led the way for even further expansions to the car insurance company and in 1997 Royal & SunAliance acquired the Canadian personal lines direct business Johnson, whose original name they still trade under today.
In 2001, More Th>n was launched in a bid for Royal & SunAlliance to bring a fresh approach to its customers in the UK who wanted to get a good deal on pet, home and car insurance. Their advertising campaigns triggered a huge response from customers who were looking for cheap car insurance quotes.
Only a year after the launch of More Th>n and recognising the changing demands of the insurance industry, Royal &SunAlliance decided to take a important step in the business by focusing solely on general insurance. This lead the way for a number of businesses to close including their life assurance sector. Following this important decision, Royal & SunAlliance also restructured their business operations in the US in 2003.
From its meagre beginnings that can date back to nearly 300 years, Royal & SunAlliance has become one of the UK's leading car insurance providers, offering motorists greats deals on the motor insurance quotes. With such a vast history, we can only expect that Royal & SunAlliance will have further developments to make in the field of insurance, offering its customers even better deals on their car insurance policies.
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