Our story is short but eventful. In less than two decades we've built an organisation of more than 8,000 employees who generate a turnover of £1.3 billion. We were too busy to let history happen to us because we were out there making it happen for us.

The revolution starts here
On 2nd April 1985. That's when we threw the switch at the first UK insurance company to use the telephone as its main channel of communication.

It was a revolutionary event. Out went the middlemen, the fat commissions, the forms, and the jargon. In came speed, simplicity, and a common-sense human touch.

But the revolution didn't end there. Next came claims by phone…then home insurance…then loans…mortgages…pensions…the list goes on.

On the campaign trail
Our first campaign against anticompetitive business practices began in 1990. We exposed the racket of home insurance bundling in a series of reports that we subsequently handed to the Office of Fair Trading.

In March 1998, we turned our attention to the plight of holidaymakers who were pressured into taking their travel agent's or tour operator's own overpriced insurances.

Right now we're fighting against restrictive practices in the motor trade, specifically the European Car Block Exemption which allows motor manufacturers to maintain 'exclusive and selective' agreements with dealers leading to over-inflated UK car prices.

Growing up, but never growing old
Every year since 1985, the number of policies in force has grown, as has the range of products on offer. For instance, by December 1993, we had become the UK's largest insurer of privately-owned motor vehicles; in October 1995, we opened our first Accident Management Centre in Wakefield; and in April 1999, we launched the first ever credit card to be applied for, and granted, over the telephone.

Along with the organic growth came acquisitions. In 1999 we bought Green Flag, the UK's third largest roadside recovery service. And in 2001 we acquired the Italian and German motor insurance businesses of the US insurance company, Allstate.

The red telephone makes its mark
January 1990 saw the first television adverts featuring the red telephone on wheels. This cheeky symbol of friendliness and honesty coming to the rescue of the British public has appeared on TV or radio somewhere in the UK almost every day since.

So popular has the red telephone become that, by 1997, customer awareness of Direct Line had reached 95%.

Many cultures, one set of core values
In a shrinking world, good news and good ideas travel fast. By 1995, the red telephone was trading in Spain under the name, Línea Directa Asseguradora. Three years later, Línea Directa had become the country's leading direct motor insurer.

In March 2001, Yasuda Direct went live. From an office in a Tokyo skyscraper with a view of the distant Mount Fuji, Direct Line was letting fresh air into the stuffy Japanese motor insurance market.