Direct insurer Admiral has posted a 49% jump in profits; generating a £55m profit for the year ended December 2002.
The company's underlying profitability is strong - it recorded a combined ratio of 80%. It claims this ratio puts it top amongst its competitors, with Cox reporting an 89% ratio and Churchill posting a 99.5% ratio.
Admiral's written premium income for 2002 was £69m. It also expanded its customer base by 16% to 705,000.
Admiral chief executive Henry Engelhardt said: "We're one of the most efficient companies in the market, which gives us the ability to pass savings back to consumers while still growing our business profitably.
"These are fantastic numbers and go a long way to dispelling the myth of 'critical mass'. We're quite a bit smaller than our peer group, yet we have the best combined ratio."
He added: "We take great pride in producing such results and being able to provide good returns for our investors and reinsurers alike. We have a fantastic team at Admiral that works very hard to provide customers with a superb service, which, in turn, leads to such good results."
