Press Releases

Fortis joins Budget van insurance panel

Fortis is the latest addition to the panel of insurers for BUDGET Van Insurance - the commercial vehicle (CV) product owned by the BGL Group.

Having launched a new van proposition to the market in 2005, Fortis is proving to offer extremely competitive rates for customers. The insurer has joined the BUDGET Van Insurance panel as an extension of an already successful relationship with Junction, BGL Group's affinity division, where Fortis has underwritten a considerable share of Post Office® van insurance policies over the last year. 

Fortis is one of the largest underwriters of private car insurance to the BGL Group. Joining the BUDGET Van Insurance panel forms part of a continued expansion for Fortis, which has ambitious plans for its commercial business in 2009.  Fortis will be operating on BGL Group's new underwriting platform Polaris, which was introduced earlier this year and has considerably boosted the Group's customer quote capability.

Since its launch in January 2006 BUDGET Van Insurance has won national acclaim for its creative and edgy marketing campaigns geared towards the stereotypical van man. As a result, the brand's creative approach to marketing quickly established an impressive customer base of commercial vehicle owners. More recently, Budget Van Insurance has launched the ‘Tradesman of the Year 2009' competition in association with Checkatrade to help champion the skills of Britain's most talented tradesmen and women.

The BGL Group's Director of Product Development, Will Price said: "We are delighted to welcome Fortis as the 13^th member of the BUDGET Van Insurance panel. Fortis is already a major player for our private motor insurance panel so we are very excited about the expansion into the CV sector. We are keen to partner with further insurers in 2009 to enhance our quoteability and ensure we provide competitive prices for customers with a wide range of CV requirements. We have ambitious customer growth targets which will deliver an excellent return for all our insurer partners."

Trevor Bowers, Head of New Products at Fortis, said: "Having developed a strong and successful partnership with the BGL Group, Fortis is delighted to be participating on the BGL Group panel in the delivery of its commercial vehicle insurance. 

"We launched our own commercial van product three years ago to target customers using light goods vehicles for their business. We are confident we can offer a competitive and high quality product for those customers seeking cover through BUDGET Van Insurance. The BGL Group has a good reputation for building well-respected and popular insurance brands, and we look forward to securing new business as a result."

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For further information please contact:

Sarah Latter, Senior PR Executive, BGL Group Ltd

Telephone: 01733 374670            E-mail:

Note to editors

Budget Van insurance searches a panel of 12 insurers to offer competitively priced van insurance, in addition to exceptional product benefits. In 2006 Budget Van launched various innovative marketing campaigns including ‘it's a van man thing' and ‘flying traffic wardens', which resulted in it being awarded ‘Marketing Campaign of The Year 2006' (Insurance Times Awards). More recently Budget Van and News of the World have joined forces to produce the Dream Dates Calendar 2007.

Budget is part of the BGL Group.

The BGL Group

The BGL Group (the Group), formerly known as Budget Group of Companies, was founded in 1992 and has grown to become one of the UK's largest personal lines insurance intermediaries.

The Group now arranges and administers insurance for over two million customers. Brands within the BGL Group include BUDGET car, van and home insurance, Bennetts bike insurance and carbon-neutral motor insurance, ibuyeco. Junction, BGL Group's affinity business, works with brands like Post Office®, M&S Money and Auto Trader to offer insurance products to their customers. The Group also offers a wide range of supplementary products, which include breakdown cover, legal protection, travel insurance and mortgage payment protection insurance.

It operates major contact centre operations (Fusion) in Peterborough, Coventry, Sunderland, Peterlee in the UK, and Cape Town, South Africa. The Group currently employs over 2,250 people with its head office in Peterborough.

In 2006 the Group received ‘Intermediary of the Year' (Insurance Age UK Broker Awards) for its outstanding contribution to the insurance industry.  In October 2007 the Group was ranked 229^th in the Sunday Times HSBC Top Track 250 of Britain's 250 biggest mid-market private companies by latest sales.

In 2007 the Group won the coveted title of Large Business of the Year in the regional Business Awards 2007 hosted by the Evening Telegraph, Peterborough. The Group's affinity business, Junction, won Marketing Campaign of the Year 2007 at the Insurance Times awards.

Checkatrade is a membership-based scheme. Tradesman have to meet certain approved criteria to become a member and then the register of approved members gives potential customers an opportunity to find reputable tradesmen in their area. Customers can then fill out feedback cards to give an open and honest view on their workmanship. This in turn provides tradesmen with more work, a proven reputation and even better quality customers.