Our final story is from Barry Loveridge, who has been a Lifesure car insurance customer since the very beginning. He first bought insurance from Lifesure founder, Colin Barnes back in 1970 for his Austin A55 truck, which cost just £25.
Colin, who lived in Yelling, Cambridgeshire, was known around the area as "the man that does insurance and the man that can". Colin took the personal approach to getting people on cover by doing what he did best; visiting people at their homes and finding out what was important to them. Barry had other insurance options, but Colin came highly recommended and was based in the local area and as they say, the rest is history!
His dealings with Colin were always good. Colin was friendly and accommodating and Barry told us: "Colin would bend over backwards for a shilling but would give it back to you if he saw you at the pub”. Whilst not always the cheapest on premiums, Colin could never be beaten on service and that was important to Barry.
When Colin started Lifesure in 1972, which ran from a small office in St Neots. Barry began to use Lifesure to protect subsequent vehicles, which included a 1952 Ford 500 van his late wife Joyce tried to learn to drive in (it frightened Barry so much he vowed never to give her lessons again), a HVA405Y Ford Escort estate, a Focus 1.6 estate, and a M1 Escort estate, which was featured in our commemorative artwork, to name a few.
50 Years on and Lifesure now operates from a much larger premises, with around fifty-four staff, and Barry still uses Lifesure to insure his current vehicle. His daughter Julie is also one of Lifesure’s senior customer advisors, who joined the team in 1985.
Julie knows how important Colin’s customer centric approach was to her dad and since Colin’s passing in 2017, she, along with the rest of the Lifesure team, have ensured that Colin’s values of Caring, Family, Commitment, Integrity, and Delight are still at the heart of everything Lifesure do today. It is through these values and the loyalty of our longstanding customers that Lifesure continues to go from strength to strength.
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