Britannia comment on Deloitte research

Neville Richardson, Britannia Group Chief Executive comments on Deloitte’s research findings showing that customers prefer High Street branches.

"We welcome this latest research by Deloitte. For a number of years it has been a fundamental part of Britannia's strategy to maintain an extensive branch network. We based our strategy on feedback from customers who, as a mutual, own our business. We were confident to act on this feedback at a time when many of our competitors were closing their branches – so it is good to see other financial organisations finally catching up with this customer-led approach.

“Britannia Building Society opened branches in 65 new towns across the South of England in 2006 following the acquisition of the Bristol & West branch network. In addition we have refurbished 95% of our 253-strong branch network over the last two years and this programme to refurbish our entire branch network will be complete by the end of September 2007.

“We are aware, of course, that customers often want and need to access products and services through a variety of distribution channels. Britannia Building Society provides both telephone and online services for this reason and we are able to do this whilst being committed to maintaining an extensive branch network so Britannia customers have the option to choose the services that suit them best.”