George Holloway was born in 1825 in Hampshire. At an early age he and his parents moved to Stroud where he and his brother co-founded Holloway Bros a clothing manufacturer of ready-wear-clothing. As one of Stroud’s largest employers at the time, Holloway took an interest in his employees.
It concerned him that the people who worked for him had nothing to fall back on in times of need, sickness or ill health and that once they retired they had no income to live off. So he devised a scheme where, for a small contribution, his workers were provided with sick pay when ill and could build up a capital fund for use at retirement.
He formulated his ideas into an essay and in 1878 entered a national competition run by MP for Bradford, Mr W E Forster. Although he didn’t win, his idea resulted in the establishment of the first Holloway Friendly Society – ‘The Mid Gloucester Working Men’s Conservative Benefit Association’ a society that provided sick pay and a saving scheme for workers.
The beginning of Cirencester friendly society.
Ten years later in 1889, local MP, Thomas Davies visited Cirencester to explain the Holloway Principle. Those that were interested gathered at The Bell Hotel in Cirencester and started their own club. By the end of the year the club had 800 Members and in 1890 Cirencester Conservative Association Working Men’s Benefit Society was formed. The scheme proved very popular and later that year the women’s and Juvenile Societies were also registered.
By 1892 the Society’s funds had more than doubled and the meetings had to be moved to the Old Savings Bank on Park Street. Throughout the early 1900’s the Society’s Membership continued to grow which resulted in another move to 76 Castle Street which was its home until 2002. During this time the name of the Society was shortened and changed to ‘The Cirencester Conservative Benefit Society’.
At the beginning of the 1960’s the Society had assets of over £1.5 million and had also undergone another name change. The word ‘Conservative’ contained within the name of the Society had long been a topic for contention. Far from being seen as the true reason of traditional or restrained in style, it was felt that the perceived political link was deterring potential Members. In fact the Women’s Central Committee had voted to add ‘non political’ to all of its balance sheets in 1940 in an attempt to break the connection. On the 7th of May 1952 following much debate the Society was renamed ‘The Cirencester Benefit Society’
Big changes for Cirencester friendly
The 1980’s saw many changes to the Society. At this point the Society had just 6 members of staff and Membership had started to decline. It computerised all its records and began a large marketing campaign to boost Membership.
In 1992 new legislation called the Financial Services Act was bought in by the government and the Society was registered and incorporated under the Friendly Societies Act. The Cirencester Benefit Society became ‘Cirencester Friendly Society Limited’ the name by which it is known today although it now trades by the shorter name of Cirencester friendly. The new legislation meant a big change for the Society as it was no longer possible to use a ‘Member get Member’ strategy to recruit new Members. Up until this point, this had been the main way in which Members had been recruited.
With a declining Membership and a legacy product the Society appointed Paul Hudson as Chief Executive Officer in 1997 which signalled big changes for the Society, starting with a change to the structure, image and product.
Just two years later came the launch of Income Assured, a new income protection product that replaced Health and Wealth (the Society’s original product). Income Assured was an income replacement insurance product, based on George Holloway’s principles of affordable sick pay cover and a capital sum back at the end of the contract.
Income Assured proved to be a hugely popular contract and in 2002, after a surge of new Members and staff, Cirencester friendly moved to 5 Dyer Street, its current home. This success continued through to 2006 when the Society enhanced Income Assured and launched Income Assured Plus, the Society’s current product.
Since then the Society has continued to grow. In 2008 the Society accepted 5,985 new Members which was the best sales year in its history and has continued to grow its Membership base, which currently exceeds 33,000.
The future of Cirencester friendly
Membership currently stands at over 33,000 and the Society is presently the 8th largest provider of income protection in the UK. 2010 has so far been a landmark year as the 20,000 Income Assured Plus contract was sold and premium income reached over £1million in a single month.
Cirencester friendly has also set up a partnership with The University of the West of England Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) that will help them replace the Society’s legacy IT systems. The KTP is a part-government funded programme aimed at encouraging collaboration between Universities and Businesses.
The relationship will give Cirencester friendly access to a wider range of the very latest IT project management skills and also financial support to enable us to strengthen and improve the existing IT framework while replacing the legacy IT systems over a two and half year period, ultimately enhancing overall efficiency.
Although, Cirencester friendly has seen many changes in its 120 years, some things remain the same. As a Holloway friendly society its core values of providing award winning, affordable income protection for the workers is still at its heart and always will be.