About Surf and Protect

So you've found our website, you may even have already bought a product/service from us, or you may be contemplating doing so.

But just who are we, what motivates us and why?

Well, lets see if we can explain...

Surf and Protect Ltd was formed on the 12th March 2004 by an individual with over 7 years experience of the motor industry which broadly involved selling vehicles for a number of manufacturers in a face to face sales environment progressing through to assisting in the startup and development of an internet based vehicle sourcing and financing company where all sales, whether it be vehicle / finance or insurance related, took place over the internet.

A short while in to dealing with this company it was noticed that there was much more emphasis on products such as GAP Insurance by Motor Dealers as a way of subsidising in many cases the loss that they made on selling an individual vehicle. A little bit of research later and it was plain to see that whilst the retail prices of cars in the UK was (albeit slowly) reducing, the cost of additional products of the likes of GAP Insurance / MOT Insurance / Super Guard and so on were actually increasing. In fact it was fair to say that for many motor dealers these additional products contributed to in some cases more than half of the overall profit being generated by the dealerships.

The downside as far as we were concerned was that the consumer never really had an alternative source for such products and therefore were "forced" to have to pay such inflated prices.

It was at this stage in our thought process that the concept for SurfandProtect.com was formed. Why couldn't we offer the UK public an alternative source for such products? Whilst still allowing the consumer the ability to take advantage of the (long overdue) discounts more frequently available on UK vehicle sales.

The short answer is that there was nothing to stop us from doing so. Therefore the 12th February 2004 saw the formation of the company whilst the 26th March 2004 saw the launch of our first website, and for those of you who are interested our first transaction was made on the 1st April 2004.

We decided in the first instance to "play it safe" and only concentrate on one specific product, which would allow us to gauge the market and develop the company cautiously and ultimately in full control.

The product we chose to launch with was GAP Insurance. We were quietly confident that we could make a success of this product online as at the time there was only one other company marketing the product online. In addition, the AA had just stopped selling the product, and a major Insurance Administrator had recently gone bust leaving many motor dealers without a supplier for GAP Insurance.

Cutting a long story very short we met our initial 12 month forecasts after only four months and haven't looked back since.

More recently the company's main focus on the Motor Industry still remains, but the overall scope of the company has changed considerably since those early days and the result of this is the launch of our latest website offering savings in not only the Motor Industry but also Home, Leisure, Business and Financial categories.

We are now well on our way to becoming "the" online presence for all Peace of Mind / Protection related products and/or services.

(06/2005)