Hastings Group reports third quarter results

Hastings Group (‘Hastings’), the technology driven UK insurance provider and part of the Sampo Group (‘Sampo’), reports today on performance for the nine months ended 30 September 2024.

Toby van der Meer, Group CEO, commented: 

“I’m really pleased that our focus on providing simple, straightforward and low cost insurance has again translated into strong customer growth and encouraging financial performance, and has helped us save both new and existing customers a lot of money, particularly after a period where the industry has seen significant price increases. 

Our ongoing investment into our digital and pricing capabilities has maintained our position as one of the most competitive UK motor and home insurance providers, without sacrificing our pricing discipline. We have increased our policy count by 11% year-on-year to 3.8 million, with growth seen across all products. We continue to invest for the long term towards building the UK’s best and biggest digital insurance provider.

We fully support the government’s focus on helping households to reduce the burden of every day bills, including insurance. In particular, we welcome efforts to improve road safety, to increase awareness of the dangers of speeding, driving under the influence, or driving whilst using mobile phones, and actions that will help reduce the prevalence of fraud and car thefts. We see examples every day of the horrible impacts these can have on the individuals and families involved.

At the heart of everything we do are all my Hastings colleagues, whom I’d like to thank for their fantastic work and dedication to our customers, each other, and the communities in which we work.”

Financial highlights

Strong performance for the nine months ended 30^th September 2024, including:

• Live customer polices (‘LCP’) increased 11% year-on-year to 3.8 million policies at 30 September 2024, largely due to increased new business sales. Motor policies increased by 8% year-on-year following continued strong growth in the third quarter, while home LCP grew by 30% year-on-year.
• Gross written premium up 27% year-on-year to £1,393.8m, reflecting rate increases mainly implemented during 2023 in response to significant market wide claims inflation, alongside increases in LCP.
• Operating ratio¹ of 88.5%, a 2.1 percentage point improvement year-on-year, driven by a stronger loss ratio.
• Operational profit² before tax increased by 86% to £140.0m, reflecting the above factors, as well as increase in investment income and continued cost discipline.

Strategic and operational initiatives

Delivery of strategic initiatives continues at pace:​​​​

• New pricing models and data features deployed in both motor and home, supporting lower prices for good drivers and continued competitiveness on price comparison websites.
• The Hastings mobile app continues to be one of the UK’s most downloaded and highly rated general insurance apps, with over 1 million downloads this year. Further usability enhancements went live during the quarter including enhanced digital renewal capabilities, and the ability for customers to access a new digital validation hub via the app, reducing resolution times for post-sale validation checks.
• New home claims management capabilities delivered to continuously improve customer experience. This included the launch of a dedicated specialist team to help customers more quickly when their house is damaged by flooding or severe weather.
• Successful upgrades to core technology platforms, including cloud based data capabilities, enhancing resilience and improving both colleague and customer experience.
• Further improvements to the YouDrive product, which promotes and encourages safer driving by allowing customers to track their driving behaviour through the mobile app.
• Ongoing investment in digital and non digital customer service has improved customer satisfaction, and Net Promoter Scores, and led to a significant continued reduction in customer complaints.

Colleagues and communities

Hastings’ commitment to supporting colleagues and communities remains strong:

• The largest ever cohort of graduates joined departments across the business including HR, Technology, Claims, Commercial and Finance.
• Events held across the company highlighting Hastings inclusive culture for both colleagues and customers, during National Inclusion Week.
• Joined the UN Global Compact and continued contribution towards the UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).
• Near-term carbon emission reduction targets submitted to Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) for validation in Q4.
• Improved Cycle to Work scheme launched for colleagues giving more flexibility and choice.
• Wellbeing programme continues to support colleagues through many initiatives, including menopause cafes and men's talking and listening groups.
• Over 8,000 community hours donated by colleagues in 2024, including mentoring support through Futuready, the company’s local schools educational programme. Over £55,000 raised by colleagues for charities including Guide Dogs for the Blind, Save the Children and Loros Hospice. Hastings provided a further £159,000 in community grants and sponsorships supporting over 65 good causes and events.

Ends

For more information, please contact pr@hastingsdirect.com.

¹Operating ratio is claims and operational costs over insurance and other revenue.
​​​​​​​²Operational profit is profit before tax, the impact of interest rate changes and non-operational amortisation resulting from business combinations.