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Paul O’Connor from Barnet voted Britain’s ‘Tradesman of the Year’!

April 2008

Paul O’Connor, a carpenter (1) from Barnet, has today been announced as Britain’s top tradesman in a competition sponsored by Budget Van Insurance. Lucky Paul scoops the top prize of £2,000 cash, as well as the coveted title of ‘Tradesman of the Year’.

The competition was created to champion the skills of Britain’s hard working tradesmen/women. Budget Van Insurance scoured the UK in search of Britain’s ‘Tradesman of the Year’.  The finalists were whittled down after sifting through over 600 entrants and assessing the quantity and quality of customer satisfaction obtained from feedback on a tradesman’s website.

Paul managed to beat the two runners up, Donna Still, a decorator (2) from Orpington and Roy Sharman, a carpenter (3) also from Orpington, who have each walked away with £250 cash and a ‘Highly Commended’ stamp of quality.  

Amongst the feedback received customers commented that Paul was “. Very reliable, he shows up on time, he's incredibly polite, nice to work with, very thorough. He goes that extra mile. I've known and used him for over 4 years and he's done carpentry work, electrical work both here at the Church, at the school down the road and last year I even got him to help me with my kitchen at home and he did a lovely job.”

Lisa Corston, Budget Van Insurance says:
“The number of entrants in this competition was overwhelming! It’s great to know that there are so many satisfied customers who are happy to endorse the tradesmen that they have used. Paul has done extremely well to be Britain’s top tradesman, congratulations!”

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For further information please contact:
Roland Cross/Joanne McGilway
Broadgate                                                                               020 7726 6111

Note to editors:
1. Paul O’Connor. Company name, Ronnoco Building Services – further information can be found at info@ronnoco-building.co.uk

2..Donna Still BA Hons Interior Design and Decorator. Company name, Spaces2Places – further information can be found at dstill@ntlworld.com

3. Roy Sharman and Neil O’Flynn. Company name, Sequoia Construction – further information can be found at sharman5@ntlworld.com

The BGL Group

The BGL Group, formerly known as Budget Group of Companies (the Group) was founded in 1992 and has grown to become one of the UK’s largest personal lines insurance intermediaries, through a combination of organic growth and a series of major strategic acquisitions (the last major acquisition was five years ago).

The Group now arranges and administers insurance for 1.9 million customers. It operates major contact centre operations (Fusion) in Peterborough, Coventry, Sunderland, Peterlee in the UK, and Cape Town, South Africa. The Group currently employs 2,255 people with its head office in Peterborough.

As an intermediary, the Group is able to access a wide range of underwriters, making it highly competitive in the marketplace, offering core products such as motor, home, commercial vehicle and motorcycle insurance.  The Group also offers a wide range of supplementary products, which include breakdown cover, legal protection, travel insurance, life assurance, pet insurance and mortgage payment protection insurance.

 In 2006 the Group received ‘Intermediary of the Year’ (Insurance Age UK Broker Awards) for its outstanding contribution to the insurance industry.  In April 2007, the Sunday Times’ PricewaterhouseCoopers Profit Track 100 rankings selected the Group as ‘one to watch’.

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 2008.

BISL Ltd, part of the BGL Group s is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority.

Registered Address: Pegasus House, Bakewell Road, Orton Southgate, PE2 6YS Registered in England no 3231094