December cold snap fuelled demand for policies

HomeServe has reported a 14% growth in customer and policy numbers in its latest interim management statement.

At the end of December 2010, the company reported that customer numbers were 4.8m and policy numbers 10.9m – both up 14% compared to the same point in 2009.

The emergency repair service company’s statement said: “All of our businesses are currently in their key period for marketing activity and customer renewals, and we are pleased to report that both new customer acquisition and retention rates are performing in line with our expectations.

“Our outlook for the full year remains unchanged, and we look forward to delivering another year of strong growth in line with market expectations1”

In the UK, the company said it was on track to achieve its full year 3-4% customer growth target, with customer numbers at 31 December 2010 over 2% higher than at the same time in 2009. This included growth in plumbing & drains and water supply pipe policies at the end of December 2010 with customer growth initiatives, including financial services and landlords also “delivering good results”.

HomeServe reported that its UK retention rate remained high and was on track to achieve the company’s full year target of at least 82%.

And it said December’s cold snap had fuelled demand for the company’s services.

“The coldest December on record meant customers needed HomeServe's home emergency repair engineers more than ever, with the number of jobs completed over 30% higher than in December 2009. This cold weather resulted in slightly higher gross new policy sales, as consumers sought to protect themselves from the inconvenience and cost of future home emergencies. The additional revenue from these jobs and policy sales is not material and is broadly offset by higher direct costs in the claim and repair networks.”

The statement added that underlying UK operating margin for the current financial year are expected to be broadly in line with the same period last year.

HomeServe reported stronger growth in the US with the number of customers and policies over 50% and 75% higher respectively than at the end of December 2009 with the retention rate remaining high at around 82%.

“We are currently delivering strong organic growth in the US from our existing affinity partners, and our business development team is continuing discussions with a number of potential new partners as we seek to further increase the number of affinity partner households in the US.”