Green flag
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| Limited company | |
| Industry | Automotive services |
| Founded | 1971 (as National Breakdown Recovery Club) |
| Founder | Bob Slicer and Jeffery Pittock |
| Headquarters | Leeds and Glasgow, United Kingdom, England and Scotland |
| Services | Breakdown assistance |
| Parent | Direct Line Group |
| Website | www |
Green Flag is a British roadside assistance and vehicle recovery provider, which is part of the Direct Line Group. Formed in 1971 (as the National Breakdown Recovery Club) as an alternative to the AA and RAC, using a network of local garages and mechanics to deliver recovery and repair services, instead of patrolling mechanics. Originally based in Pudsey, their operations are now controlled over several offices within the Direct Line Group.
Green Flag started as an idea between two friends, Bob Slicer and Jeffery Pittock - in a pub in Bradford. At the time, the AA and RAC were well established, and offered assistance at the roadside. Slicer and Pittock's National Breakdown Recovery Club operated under a different model, using a network of garages and mechanics that would recover and fix member's cars. The mechanics' local knowledge was meant to provide a swifter response to calls, than the established competition.
When the service began as a three man business (with Ernest Smith) in 1971, membership only covered breakdowns within a fifty mile radius of their Morley Street base in Bradford, and cost £1.50 a year. Within three years, NBRC had become the largest breakdown recovery firm in the country, with over 100,000 members.
In 1984, NBRC was acquired by National Car Parks (NCP), and five years, the firm later moved to new purpose built headquarters in Pudsey, which were opened by Diana, Princess of Wales. The company was renamed Green Flag in 1994. The company, now being run by Ernest Smith as Chief Executive, was looking to expand into other insurance services. "Green is the symbol of health in Europe," Smith told The Independent in June 1995.
NCP was bought out by investment firm Cendant, who put Green Flag up for sale in May 1999, after regulators blocked their attempt to gain critical mass by also buying RAC. Later that year, Green Flag became part of the RBS Group, when it was acquired by Direct Line for £220m. June 2008 saw Green Flag announce that it would be branding four hundred vans across its network, to match its marketing.
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Wikipedia