UK brands see Spanish red
May 27 2009 – a momentous day for Spain both on and off the pitch. However it may also turn out to be a day when spectators watching the proceedings will call ‘foul’. Away from the team on the ground but out on the high street, a Leicester brand has joined two other household financial high street names about to go completely into the ‘red’.
The much loved Alliance and Leicester brand, originally established in 1852 under the name, Leicester Permanent Society has joined high street financial brands, Abbey, and Bradford & Bingley who within a year will fall under the red banner of globalisation, in the name of an all-powerful 40 countries wide player – Spanish Santander group.
Between them, by 2010, customers at 1,300 branches will see their credit cards and chequebooks completely ablaze in Santader’s flame red iconography.
As with Norwich Union (now Aviva) customers, for already severely credit-crunched customers across the UK group, the £12m moved will be viewed with scepticism. Indeed, messing about with a respected brand – when financial customers are actually looking for stability seems at the very least, rash. However, António Horta-Osório, chief executive of Santander’s UK businesses said, “Customers trust us as a global brand and they feel very safe about their savings.”
For Abbey, brand name changes have been habitual. In 1849 the National Freehold Land and Building Society was established. In 1944 Abbey National was formed. By 1989 Abbey National became the first building society to float on the London stock exchange. In 2007 Santander stepped in with a £8bn deal – at the time Europe’s biggest cross-border bank takeover.
A&L was formed in 1985 through a merger between the Alliance Building Society and Leicester Building Society. In 1990 the company purchased Girobank. In 2008, Santander stepped in with a £1.3bn deal.
2008 also saw Santander paying £612m for the then recession ravaged and so partly nationalised Bradford and Bingley. The brand started life in 1851 when the Bradford Second Equitable Building Society and the Bingley, Morton and Shipley Permanent Benefit Building Society were formed. In 1964 the Bradford and Bingley merged. In 2000 the organisation demutualised and was floated on the London stock exchange. By the end of 2008 Bradford and Bingley announced 1,900 jobs losses. Bradford & Bingley still exists as an entity and is owned by the Treasury.
The news of the changes comes as another familiar high street name warns of a different kind of ‘condition red’. The mutually owned Nationwide Building Society’s 2008/2009 net profit fell 67% to £162 million from £495 million a year earlier. Underlying profit before tax fell 78% from a year earlier.
Let’s hope the company, like many formerly great British teams doesn’t become relegated to a former league of gentlemen.
Jonathan Gabay
www.brandforensics.co.uk
www.soultraderstruth.com
Thursday, May 28th, 2009 at 8:35 amand is filed under Brand expert, Finance. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
