Best Of British Trivia Quiz

Answer: Brompton

Fed up with the amount of room a bicycle takes up when not being used, Ritchie began experimenting with a folding cycle design which has been hugely successful, with the firm now producing 40,000 bikes a year, of which 70% are sold abroad.
In recognition of this growth, Brompton have been awarded the Queen's Award for Export as well as the Queen's Award for Enterprise and the Prince Philip Designers Prize, and their sales continue to grow.
A Brompton folds into a package measuring just 565 × 545 × 250 mm (22.2 × 21.5 × 9.8 in) and can be unfolded and ready for use again in just 20 seconds.

Answer: Specsavers

As well as Australia and New Zealand, Specsavers expanded into Ireland in 1990, Netherlands in 1997, Sweden in 2004, Norway in 2005 and Spain in 2006.
The company launched its first celebrity glasses range in 2017, with the Kylie Minogue collection and continued this theme in 2018 with a collection from will.i.am.
Specsavers have also sponsored the England cricket team and referees in the Scottish football league, which would all seem to be paying off as global revenue for 2017-18 was up 7% on the previous year at a whopping £2.61 billion.

Answer: Vodafone

In 2018, Vodafone had 313 million customers worldwide, making them the fourth largest phone network in the world and in 2019, they were voted the worst mobile network provider in UK for the eighth year running by consumers.
They have come under fire for many years in Australia where they are referred to as "Vodafail", but they continue to expand and be a recognisable British name, operating networks in 25 countries by 2018.

Answer: JCB

JCB, named after founder Joseph Cyril Bamford, are much better known for their range of yellow backhoes and excavators than for their record breaking vehicles. The name JCB is so synonymous with diggers that it is used in UK as a generic term for these vehicles, whatever the make. The JCB Dieselmax which set the record was piloted by Andy Green, who in 1997 became the first person to break the sound barrier on land while driving Thrust SSC. Amazingly, Green felt unable to drive the Dieselmax at its full potential as he had some reservations about the ability of the tyres and has admitted that the 350 mph speed was set in fifth gear as he wasn't comfortable about changing into sixth gear.

Answer: Cosmetics

Lush have grown at an astonishing rate since 1995, and have managed it without any mainstream advertising at all, instead relying on word of mouth generated by satisfied customers.
They are perhaps best known for their bath bombs, which come in many different scents, and are guaranteed to infuse a user's whole house with fruity smells.

Answer: Aston Martin

Previously known as Bamford & Martin, after the original owners, Robert Bamford and Lionel Martin, the Aston Martin name came into being after the company hit financial difficulties and was taken over by investors who renamed it in 1925.
The glory days came when tractor manufacturer David Brown bought the company in 1947 and began manufacturing the classic "DB" series of cars, beginning with the 2-Litre Sports, DB1.
In 1964, the beautiful DB5 was the car used by James Bond in the movie "Goldfinger" and since then, the DB5 has been associated with the world's favourite spy, although he has also used the V8 Vantage Volante in "The Living Daylights" (1987), the V12 Vanquish in "Die Another Day" (2002), the DBS V12 in "Casino Royale" (2006) and "Quantum of Solace" (2008) and the DB10 in "Spectre" (2015).

Answer: Hatton Garden

Prudential's great innovation came in 1854, when they began selling industrial insurance to the working classes for premiums beginning at a penny. These premiums were sold and collected by an army of door to door agents, and "the man from the Pru" as they became known were a familiar site on British streets right up until the 1970s. Prudential is now a worldwide company, but still headquartered in London, and in 2017, reported an operating profit of £4.7 billion. Of the other possible answers, all are famous, but none for diamonds. Billingsgate is famed for its fish market, Covent Garden for flowers, fruit and veg, while Soho is well known for its many sex shops and adult entertainment venues.

Answer: Brewdog

The examples in the question, along with "Elvis Juice", "Punk" and "Nanny State" are all beer names from this company whom I regularly assist in profit boosting by consuming too many of their wonderful brews.
James Watt and Martin Dickie have grown this company from humble beginnings to a global giant that now exports to 55 countries and has over 1,000 employees with a turnover in 2017 of £112 million.
In 2009, the company made what was, at the time, the strongest beer made, with 32% alcohol, the wonderfully named "Tactical Nuclear Penguin".

Answer: Tea

Twinings were founded by Thomas Twining and the address on the Strand is Britain's oldest known tea room. The famous company logo of the name in black lettering on a gold background was first used in 1787 and is the world's oldest logo in continuous use and since 1837, Twinings have held a royal warrant, supplying every British monarch since Queen Victoria.

They have been owned by Associated British Foods since 1964, but began exporting tea, initially to America in 1749 and in 1972, they became the first company ever to win the Queen's Award for Export.

Answer: Burberry

In 1856, 21 year old Thomas Burberry took the bold move of leaving his apprenticeship with a draper to open his own store in Basingstoke and the rest is history. Burberry focused on outdoors attire, specifically a water-resistant yet breathable fabric, the hard wearing gabardine, providing clothing to Roald Amundsen for his 1911 trek to the South Pole, Ernest Shackleton for his expedition across Antarctica in 1914 and George Mallory when he attempted the ascent of Mount Everest in 1924. In 2019, the brand is more associated with fashion than ground breaking exploration and has over 500 stores in 50 countries.