THE boss of the Furness Building Society believes the key to its growing success is its belief in “face-to-face” customer relations.

Chief executive Nigel Quinton was speaking after cutting the ribbon at the newest Furness outlet, in Lee Lane, Horwich.

Mr Quinton proudly proclaimed Furness as the only building society with a physical presence in Horwich.

“People want face to face contact,” he said. “Like other banks and building societies, we have the online facilities as well.

“But we have become a leading North West building society by servicing people who also want a traditional approach to financial dealing.

“The quality of our mortgage products has been recognised with the society named Regional Building Society of the Year for 2013 and 2014 by Mortgage Finance Gazette, but we are constantly seeking ways to improve the services we provide for customers.”

The Furness outlet, which occupies the ground floor of the LBH accountancy offices, is the 17th agency run by the building society in the region, in addition to 11 branches, including one in Knowsley Street, Bolton.

Mr Quinton said Furness was eyeing an 18th agency elsewhere in the North West as the organisation continued its current strategy.

The launch of the Horwich branch follows the departure of Santander, which occupied the same premises in July.

Furness is meanwhile boasting easier access to mortgage advice, creating created a new network of trained mortgage advisers permanently based in every branch across the North West, to ensure customers seeking home loans have easier face-to-face access to personal advice and guidance.

Ray Hamer and Alan Leach, partners of LBH, said they were delighted to be sharing their building with Furness.

“We’ve been in business here since November, 1984,” said Mr Hamer. “Since then, we’ve worked with Bradford and Bingley Building Society, Santander and now Furness. We now look forward to a long, happy and prosperous business relationship with Furness.”