About Us

It was there in 1912 that our founder, Samuel Copley started the Western Australia Insurance Company Limited (Waico), a small insurance company initially specialising in cover for sheep and cattle transportation.

Two years later Sam brought his business expertise back to the the United Kingdom and set up a branch of his - by now very successful - insurance company. By 1959 Waico had ceased writing insurance business in Australia and shortly thereafter London became its main operating base. Since that time, the company has grown and evolved into the Domestic & General that we know today.

Over the years the Company has dealt in several areas of insurance, but it was the introduction of breakdown cover on early televisions that proved to be our major business breakthrough in the 1950s. Our first warranty offered protection for cathode ray tubes in the black and white televisions that were increasingly appearing in UK households. Cover for kitchen equipment was introduced in 1977 and central heating followed in 1978.

Domestic & General was floated in 1988 and became fully listed on the London Stock Exchange. In November 2007 the company once again became privately owned, when it was bought by Advent International Corporation and Domestic & General Group Holdings Limited was formed.

While the UK is our most developed market, our international business is now an increasingly important part of our success. We now have more than 10 million customers across 11 different international markets - notably Australia, Germany and Spain.