Another High Street Rebrand

cwathen
Posts: 1309
Joined: Fri 15 Aug, 2003 17.28

james2001 wrote:I actually switched my car insurance to the co-op only a few weeks back. Rather sadly a few weeks too early to get paperwork with the new (old) logo on!
Just a little bump...last week I had my renewal through from them, all the paperwork is still the old logo even now. Also didn't bother renewing, £300 more than the cheapest quote I could get elsewhere and still £200 more than the average figure. Zero interest in revising their quote either.

Seems rather odd having found them very competitive for a good few years now.
User avatar
Pete
Posts: 7589
Joined: Fri 15 Aug, 2003 13.36
Location: Dundee

cwathen wrote:
james2001 wrote:I actually switched my car insurance to the co-op only a few weeks back. Rather sadly a few weeks too early to get paperwork with the new (old) logo on!
Just a little bump...last week I had my renewal through from them, all the paperwork is still the old logo even now. Also didn't bother renewing, £300 more than the cheapest quote I could get elsewhere and still £200 more than the average figure. Zero interest in revising their quote either.

Seems rather odd having found them very competitive for a good few years now.
i thought the bank was staying with the old logo?
"He has to be larger than bacon"
james2001
Posts: 718
Joined: Sat 04 Jun, 2005 23.10

I think the insurance is separate from the bank, still part of the co-operative group? Certainly their website has the new (old) logo on it.
JAS84
Posts: 585
Joined: Fri 12 Aug, 2011 10.23
Location: Hull, UK

I thought the ABC cinema chain was long gone. Apparently one has survived until now because there's an Odeon on the same street, and Odeon owns ABC. It's now finally closed down, along with that Odeon, as they're opening a bigger Odeon on a new leisure park.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-dorset-38500616
all new Phil
Posts: 1965
Joined: Sun 13 Feb, 2005 00.04
Location: Next door to Hell

There are still three - there is one at each Butlins.
Whataday
Posts: 361
Joined: Fri 22 Aug, 2003 00.08
Location: Cardiff
Contact:

all new Phil wrote:There are still three - there is one at each Butlins.
I'm not sure of the story behind those, because they come from an era when Butlins was owned by Rank - but Rank owned Odeon rather than ABC (and have never owned ABC to my knowledge).

I'm not sure they were even run as proper cinemas. My only memory of going to one was in the late 90s watching Beethoven's 2nd which started with a red coat yanking a screen down then fast forwarding through the "This VHS is protected by copyright..." message.

According to the Cinema Treasures website:
The cinema was re-named ABC in the late 1990’s and was open to the general public on the purchase of a day pass, as well as holiday camp residents. When Odeon Theatres took over ABC Cinemas in 2000, the name was changed to Odeon briefly, but soon reverted back to ABC.
I wonder why Odeon thought best not to keep its name on this...

Image
Image
thegeek
Posts: 858
Joined: Sat 04 Jun, 2005 12.35

The ABC in Glasgow (which I remember from my youth as a Cannon, then MGM) later reopened as a music venue - also known as the ABC, and complete with the original ABC logo on the sign.

Then Academy Music Group took it over, so it's now the O2 abc and has a boring O2-style sign.
thegeek
Posts: 858
Joined: Sat 04 Jun, 2005 12.35

all new Phil wrote:There are still three - there is one at each Butlins.
I don't remember seeing one at Bognor when I was there last year - in fact, it doesn't seem to be on the map. Then again, there's Freeview tellies in all the rooms, so I guess less need than there used to be.
james2001
Posts: 718
Joined: Sat 04 Jun, 2005 23.10

From my experiences going to Butlin's at Skegness, they brought in Odeon brand cinemas after their big refurbishment in 1999, I think it was around 2002 they became ABC branded (around the same time the other ABC Cinemas became Odeon branded). Certainly a holiday video I have from Butlin's in October 2001 you can see the Odeon sign still there in the background.

I don't think there is an Odeon at Bognor any more, but there still is at Skegness and Minehead- the one in Skegness has 2 screens. They have an old projector in the lobby that apparently was in use in the old Junior Showplace before the 1999 refurbishment- the manager told me how he rescued it during the refurb, otherwise it would have been scrapped.

I know where I live when I was growing up, the cinema was Cannon branded (apparently it was an ABC until the mid-80s), then it became an ABC around 1995-ish, then moved to an out of town multiplex in 1997, then changed to Odeon in 2002. Though you can still see the marks were the ABC logo was attatched. The old cinema became a snooker club until around 2011-ish, now it's a happy-clappy church.
Whataday
Posts: 361
Joined: Fri 22 Aug, 2003 00.08
Location: Cardiff
Contact:

The ABC Newport (which as a young boy I'd get excited about because I'd pretend it was BBC TVC) went a similar way as you've described:

ABC
Image

Then Cannon
Image

Then ABC
Image

Then ABC closed and an independent chain (Reel Cinemas) invested in it and tried their best to hang on...
Image

Then it got completely gutted and rebuilt internally as a Travelodge.
Image

And if you think that's tragic, consider the building originally demolished to make way for the ABC:

Image

That's progress folks.
Alexia
Posts: 2999
Joined: Sat 01 Oct, 2005 17.50

More info : https://opac.newport.gov.uk/iguana/www. ... =LIONNNABC

For so long, the only cinema in Newport after the closure of the Scene 1&2 and Odeon out on Clarence Place / Corpa Road. When the new multiplex Virgin Cinema (which became UGC, now Cineworld) opened out at Spytty Park in the mid-late 90s, that was the death knell for the Cannon/ABC cinema; last film I saw there out of choice was Vertical Limit.

Interestingly when Cannon/Scene 1&2 closed, the local rag the Argus chose not to update its cinema listings codes. (Film listings had a series of letters next to their entries to denote which cinemas in the local area were showing the film, so you'd have FILM ABCEFH) so where A used to represent that cinema, it was simply left off future listings. H was added on as the Virgin.

Image
Image
Scene today : https://goo.gl/maps/GG1xpcVmgep
Post Reply