Santander to rebrand Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bradley (From Daily Echo)

Santander to rebrand Abbey, Alliance & Leicester and Bradford & Bradley

8:43am Thursday 28th May 2009

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SPANISH bank Santander is set to become one of the most familiar sights on the Hampshire high street after bosses decided to rebrand its 19 stores in the south of the county.

The red and white flame logo, probably so far most widely recognised as sponsoring world champion racing driver Lewis Hamilton, will soon be seen across the region as the bank renames all of its branches of Abbey, Bradford & Bingley and Alliance & Leicester by the end of next year.

The move will result in at least three Santander branches within a few minutes’ walk of each other on both Southampton and Winchester’s main shopping streets.

Despite the close proximity of the branches, the firm says that it has no plans to close any locations, which will see 1,300 Santander shopfronts spring up across the UK.

The bank also says that it has no more plans to shed any employees after announcing 1,900 job cuts nationwide last December.

A spokeswoman for Santander said: “Although I don’t know the exact layout of the Hampshire locations we have no plans to close any of the branches. Obviously if there are a few that are very close together we will look at how we can use them to best serve the community.”

As well as Southampton and Winchester, Santander branches will be seen in Eastleigh, Romsey, Chandler’s Ford, Hythe, Lymington, Fareham and Gosport.

About a third of Abbey’s workforce went after it was bought by Santander in 2004 and bosses introduced sophisticated new computer systems.

Antonio Horta-Osório, chief executive of Santander’s UK businesses, said: “Bringing together the three brands means it will be even easier for customers to manage their finances as they will have access to over 1,300 branches once the change is complete.”

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