Hastings Group (“Hastings”), the technology driven UK insurance provider, today announces its interim results for the six months ended 30th June 2021, delivering another period of profitable growth.
Toby van der Meer, Group CEO commented:
“I’m really pleased with our strong performance in the first half of the year, delivering profit growth and great progress against our strategic and operational initiatives. As always, my thanks go to my 3,300 colleagues, who continue to brilliantly support our 3.1 million customers, our communities and each other.”
Financial highlights
- Good financial performance, including increased profit before tax of £76 million, a lower calendar year loss ratio of 63.4% and gross written premiums of £481 million.
- Live customer policies are broadly stable compared to the year end at 3.1 million, and up 4% year on year.
- Customer retention rates continue to be high and above market averages, with ongoing support given to our customers throughout the pandemic.
- Premium reductions were observed across the UK motor market during the first quarter of 2021, however there were signs of this stabilising during the second quarter. Hastings has remained disciplined, contributing to an increase in average premiums during the second quarter.
- Motor claims frequencies, though higher than 2020, have remained below 2019 levels, reflecting reduced motor vehicle usage as a result of COVID-19 restrictions. However, frequencies have increased throughout the second quarter as restrictions were lifted. The average cost of claims continues to rise, reflecting inflationary trends.
Strategic initiatives
Hastings continues to make good progress on its strategic initiatives, including:
- Improvements in customer service through systems enhancements, digital improvements and process and supplier changes, leading to continued high customer NPS scores.
- New products, pricing models and sources of data have been added during the first half of 2021, laying the foundations for continued profitable growth.
- New functionality continues to be added on the mobile app, supporting increased usage with customer engagement and feedback also remaining positive.
- Claims transformation initiatives continue to make good progress, including optimising and digitalising repair journeys for customers.
- Home insurance customer policies were up 27% year-on year to almost 300,000, supported by new pricing capabilities, with new internal home claims management capabilities due to launch later in 2021.
- Well prepared for the recently introduced whiplash reforms, with early results being monitored closely, and the FCA’s review of general insurance pricing practices, due to be implemented by the end of 2021.
Supporting our colleagues and communities
Hastings’ remains firmly committed to supporting colleagues, and the communities in which it operates. Highlights include:
- Investment in flexible working for colleagues, contributing to continued high colleague engagement scores.
- Support for 116 charities, donating much needed funds and resources including, for example, equipment for local schools to support home tuition, £80,000 to local homeless charities to provide food, toiletries and clothing, and the planting of trees & hedgerows in partnership with local charities in Bexhill and Leicester.
- Certified carbon neutral for the second year in a row.
- Relaunch of the Inclusion Council which, with executive sponsors, will focus on specific areas of diversity and inclusion.
- Good progress on internal colleague development, as well as on the recruitment of diverse talent, with this remaining a priority going forward to help build an increasingly diverse leadership team.
Ends
For more information, please contact pr@hastingsdirect.com.
About Hastings
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 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.