Hastings Group reports solid first quarter results

Hastings Group (‘Hastings’), the technology driven UK insurance provider, today announces its results for the three months ended 31 March 2022.

Toby van der Meer, Group CEO, commented:

“I am proud of the excellent progress we continue to make on our strategic and technology initiatives. The pace of delivery remains high with the successful implementation of new pricing models and data capabilities, enhanced mobile app functionality, the launch of a digital only car product and the full rollout of our new digital sales journey for customers as just a few examples.

“The market has remained competitive and we are seeing elevated claims inflation. In this environment, we have prioritised pricing discipline, and have seen a 10% growth in written premiums, as well as strong progress in home insurance, with policy count up 18% year on year.

“As always, I would like to thank my 3,300 Hastings colleagues for their hard work and commitment.”

Financial highlights

Solid financial performance for the three months to 31 March 2022, including:

• Gross written premium increased 10% to £229.5m year on year, with higher average premiums reflecting both a change in mix of customers and increases in underlying rates reflective of the trends in market wide claims inflation
• Home insurance customer policies were up 18 per cent year-on-year to over 329,000, supported by new data and pricing capabilities. Total customer policies are broadly stable from year end, and 3% up year on year to over 3.1 million. Customer retention rates continue to be high
• The average cost of claims continues to rise, reflecting increases in the value of second-hand cars and increases in repair costs, largely due to extended repair periods as a result of continuing Covid-19 and supply chain disruption, along with inflation in labour, parts and paint
• Motor market conditions remain highly competitive following the introduction of the FCA’s Pricing Practices review, which came in effect from January 2022. Hastings continues to prioritise pricing discipline over volume growth and has continued to increase prices in the face of ongoing claims inflation. 

Strategic and operational initiatives

Hastings continues to invest in its strategic initiatives, including:​​​​

• New pricing models rolled out for car and home insurance, including ongoing investment in our data platforms
• Hastings Online product introduced, giving customers a lower cost, self-service policy option, and roll out of new Multi-car proposition
• Digital adoption continues to increase, supported by both an improved online ‘quote to buy’ sales journey  and the roll out of new functionality on the mobile app
• Customer service enhancements have been delivered, leading to continued strong customer net promotor scores and reductions in customer service call volumes.

Our colleagues and communities

Hastings remains firmly committed to maintaining its unique culture, and supporting the communities in which it operates:

• Significant investment made in working flexibly and new technology, providing colleagues with a better work experience at home and in the office
• Recognised in the Top 50 UK Inclusive Employers 2021/2022
• Certified CarbonNeutral® organisation for third year running, with overall carbon footprint reduced by 45% from our 2019 baseline. 
• Supported the humanitarian response to Ukraine by donating to UNICEFs’ appeal
• Introducing cover for Ukrainian refugees as part of the customer’s family, giving them full protection of their Hastings home insurance policy
• The launch of our Futuready education mentoring programme in Leicester, designed to help year nine and ten students at local schools.
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Ends

For more information, please contact pr@hastingsdirect.com 

About Hastings Group

Founded in 1996 in Bexhill-on-Sea on the Sussex coast, the Hastings Group is one of the leading general insurance providers to the UK market, with over 3.1 million live customer policies and employing over 3,300 colleagues.

Hastings provides simple and straightforward products and services to UK car, bike, van, and home insurance customers with around 90% of policies directly underwritten by Group's Gibraltar based Underwriting business, Advantage Insurance Company Limited.

Hastings Direct is a trading name of Hastings Insurance Services Limited, the Group's UK broker, which also trades via 'Hastings Premier', 'Hastings Essential', 'Hastings Direct YouDrive', 'People's Choice' and 'insurePink'.

The Group operates as an insurance provider with two separate businesses. The Group's Retail business, Hastings Insurance Services Limited, is responsible for the end customer pricing, fraud management, product design, distribution, and management of the underlying customer relationships. The Group's Underwriting business, Advantage Insurance Company Limited, engages in risk selection, underlying technical pricing, reserving and claims handling. Retail is supported by, and benefits from, Underwriting's prudent approach to risk and reserving and benefits from a panel of insurance partners which provide additional underwriting capacity. The Group's business model deliberately separates underlying product manufacturing from its distribution.

For more information visit the Hastings Group website.