Hastings Group reports strong third quarter results

Hastings Group (‘Hastings’), the technology driven UK insurance provider, reports on performance for the nine months ended 30 September 2023.

Toby van der Meer, Group CEO, commented:

“I am pleased with how we have navigated the challenging market conditions over the last 18 months by remaining focused on pricing discipline in the face of elevated claims inflation.

We have increased written premiums by 32% whilst continuing to grow our policy count by 6% year-on-year as market prices have hardened. We are well placed to benefit from the early pricing action taken with results improving as these higher premiums earn through over the next year.

We continue to invest in building the UK’s leading digital insurance provider, with new technology, data, claims and digital initiatives. I am proud of the immediate actions Hastings have taken to help our customers impacted during the recent fire at Luton Airport and as always, I’d like to thank my colleagues for their work in supporting each other, our customers and the communities in which we work.”

Financial highlights

Strong performance for the 9 months ended 30 September 2023, including:

• Gross written premium up 32% year-on-year to £1,101.8m, reflecting higher average premiums and an increase in live customer policies (‘LCP’).
• Increases in premiums across the market have led to increased customer use of price comparison websites (‘PCWs’), benefiting Hastings new business volumes.
• Total LCP increased 6% year-on-year to 3.4m policies. Home, in particular, experienced strong growth, with LCP increasing 32% year-on-year to 510k.
• The calendar year loss ratio for 30 September 2023 was 63.9% (9.6 percentage points up year-on-year), reflecting continued severity inflation, high claims frequencies and weather events experienced in Q1.
• Operational Profit Before Tax, excluding interest rate movements and non-operational amortisation, of £75.1m (2022: £72.7m).

Strategic and operational initiatives

Continued investment in strategic initiatives in 2023:

• Continued emphasis on the development of data engineering and modelling to support leading edge pricing and antifraud capabilities.
• The Hastings mobile app continues to be highly rated (4.6 IOS and 4.5 Android), with over 950,000 downloads in the year to date.
• Hastings YouDrive telematics product that promotes and encourages safer driving, has continued to experience growth.
• Continued delivery of customer services enhancing customer satisfaction with an increased Net Promoter Score (‘NPS’) ahead of prior year.
• New digital renewals hub launched this year and enhancements to the digital servicing journeys for renewing customers continue to develop.
• New digital claims notification capability launched earlier in the year, leading to increased online completion rates and a NPS of +55.
• Improvement of customer journeys and operational efficiency through the continued roll-out of our new contact centre technology, automation of key processes and implementation of Guidewire functionality.

Our colleagues and communities

Ongoing commitment to supporting colleagues and the communities in which we operate:

• Received strong positive feedback from customers regarding our response to the recent fire at Luton Airport. Hastings promptly took action to ensure the availability of hire cars, protection of no claims discounts and early total loss payments to assist colleagues who would have otherwise been stranded during the ongoing investigations.
• Highest intake of early career colleagues across Data, Fraud, Claims and Technology, with a comprehensive three-day induction programme.
• Colleague-led Inclusion Council continues to lead diversity and inclusion events, including National Inclusion Week and Black History Month. The Council has also contributed to a number of initiatives, including the launch of our baby-loss policy.
• Record number of colleagues enrolled on to the 30% Club 2023-24 Mission Gender Equity and Mission Include.
• Our Bexhill Head Office now runs on 100% renewable energy, following a switch to Biogas, which resulted in a 10% reduction in our overall carbon footprint per annum.
• Over 7,000 community hours donated by colleagues so far in 2023, including mentoring local students as part of our Futuready education programme.
• Enhanced communications training to over 1,000 customer facing colleagues, further supporting our simple and straightforward customer tone of voice.

Ends

For more information, please contact pr@hastingsdirect.com