Admiral celebrates 25 years
IT’S one of Wales’ best-ever business success stories and this week motor insurance to price comparison group Admiral celebrated its 25th birthday.
It was launched on January 2, 1993 in Cardiff. At the time, it had just one brand, zero customers and 57 members of staff.
Today it has 15 brands around the world, with over five million customers and 9,000 members of staff.
And here are 25 things you probably don’t know about Wales’ only FTSE 100 business:
1. SHARES
Since floating on the London Stock Exchange in 2004, shares worth more than £380m have been awarded to Admiral employees.
2. FIRST NAMES
Christopher is the most common first name in Admiral, with a 127 of them across their offices in Swansea, Cardiff and Newport.
3. SURNAMES
Jones is the most common Admiral surname. There are 234 Joneses working in south Wales. Jones is followed in popularity by Davies, Williams, Thomas and Evans.
4. AWARD WINNING
Over the years, Admiral has won more than 100 awards all over the globe for being a good employer, including being named the 23rd best workplace in the world in 2017.
5. HQ CAR PARK
The waiting list for a car park space at Tŷ Admiral is 1,092 members of staff long.
The next person in line will be taking over a vacant space this month. They have been waiting a mere 15 years and nine months!
6. AGES
If you add together the ages of all Admiral staff in south Wales, it comes to 225,000 years.
7. SERVICE
The average length of service for all staff is six years. There are 12 members of staff who have been with the business for 25 years.
8. COMBINED SERVICE
If you add together the length of service of all the company’s staff in south Wales, there is 42,500 years of service between them.
9. MARCH 22
More Admiral staff were born on March 22 than any other day of the year, with 33 employees having their birthday on that date.
All birthdays in Admiral are celebrated, usually with balloons, cards and cake and with a message from chief executive David Stevens popping up on an employee’s computer.
10. MULTI-ETHNIC
No less than 52 different nationalities work for Admiral in south Wales and with numerous languages spoken, including Polish, Urdu and Finnish.
11. GOOD CAUSES
Admiral has donated more than £1m to over 3,300 local organisations through its Community Chest scheme, which has been running for the past 12 years. The name Admiral was chosen as it meant it would be one of the first entries in the Yellow Pages and sounded like an established, respected company.
13. CLOSE CALL
Admiral very nearly launched in Brighton rather than Cardiff.
However, a £1m grant from the then Welsh Development Agency meant Henry Engelhardt and David Stevens chose the Welsh capital.
14. WELSH FANS
Admiral staff have won more than 5,000 tickets to Six Nations games in the Principality Stadium thanks to the firm’s partnership with the WRU.
It’s also not unusual to see Welsh international rugby players in the office as they often visit for online chats and meet-and-greets with staff.
15. BREAKFAST
Admiral employees love a good breakfast! In just the past year, staff across Cardiff, Swansea and Newport have eaten around 100,000 slices of toast, 75,000 sausages and 60,000 portions of beans in the company’s canteens.
16. WELCOME ABOARD
Chief executive David Stevens (and Henry Engelhardt before him) hold welcome talks for all new members of staff and everyone gets a piece of jigsaw.
This is to remind everyone that to complete the picture you need all the parts and every part is as important as the next. People who have been with Admiral for many years still have their piece of jigsaw.
17. HEALTHY
They’re healthy too. Admiral staff munch their way through around 14,000 pieces of fruit each week through its Ministry of Health programme’s free fruit deliveries to each site in south Wales.
18. INSURANCE POLICIES
Almost 17 million car and home insurance policies have been sold since Admiral launched in 1993.
19. RECORD DAY
The most policies (home and car) sold in one day was 6,954 on Monday, February 29, 2016.
20. RECORD BREAKER
One of Admiral longest-serving members of staff has sold more than 73,000 policies to date.
21. PHONE TIME
Its staff have taken around 175 million calls from customers over the past 25 years, with an average of seven million customer calls per year.
22. GLOBAL REACH
Admiral has 18 offices around the world in eight different countries, ranging from 3,000 staff in Tŷ Admiral in Cardiff to five members of staff at its newest office, Rastreator. mx in Mexico City.
23. BIG ACTS
McFly, Olly Murs, Madness and the Sugababes are just some of the famous names who have entertained Admiral employees at their staff parties.
24. STAFF RECOGNITION
The names of the staff at the time the firm moved to Tŷ Admiral in 2014 are displayed on the glass of the building in the reception area.
25. STOCK MARKET
When Admiral floated on the London Stock Exchange, 1,500 staff shared a payout of over £56m, receiving an average windfall of £37,000 each