Covea delays £20m aggregator launch

French mutual giant Covea has delayed the launch of its price comparison site.

Covea had planned to launch the site in early 2012, backed up by a £20m marketing and advertising blitz.

But Covea is delaying the launch after insurer partners questioned how successful yet another aggregator could be, unless it had a different offering to the brand-blitz big four of Comparethemarket, Confused, Gocompare and Moneysupermarket.

Insurance Times understands that Covea is now privately telling insurer partners to expect the site to be launched by the middle of next year.

Covea aims to leverage its personal lines might in Swinton, MMA and Provident with the price comparison site.

A spokesman said: “In response to speculation regarding the launch of our new price comparison site, I would like to clarify that we have reviewed our launch schedule following valuable discussions with consumers and our insurance partners.

“It was clear during our exploratory meetings with both consumers and partners, they did not want another ‘me too’ aggregator, but one which brought real differentiation to the market.

“This is something we also believe in and the decision to review our launch timetable is a strategic one which will allow further developments of our offering in order to present the market and our partners with a truly enhanced proposition.

“We do not wish to rush to market at the expense of our customers and business partners with an offering that lacks innovation and market differentiation. We believe that by reviewing our launch timetable we will be able to come to market with an enhanced proposition that will benefit both consumers and our insurance partners.”