MIDLANDS based emergency repairs business HomeServe has said it expects first half profits to be ahead of the same period last year and in line with expectations.
In a trading update ahead of its interim results, the Walsall firm said its membership business for the first six months of the year had grown, along with customer policies and retention rates.
As in previous years, profits and customer growth are expected to be weighted towards the second half reflecting the seasonality of the group’s business.
Full year outlook remains unchanged, and the group said it continued to look forward to another year of strong growth.
In the UK, gross new policy sales are expected to be around 720k, over 12% higher than in the same period last year (HY10: 640k). Policy numbers are expected to be around 5% higher and customer numbers slightly ahead of the same period last year (HY10: 6,828k and 2,832k respectively).
It said it remained on track to achieve full year 3-4% customer growth target.
The UK retention rate has remained high at around 83% (HY10: 83.4%) and we are on track to achieve our full year target of at least 82% (FY2010: 83.0%).
“We continue to make progress with our customer growth initiatives and have recently signed an agreement with Northern Rock to promote our home emergency policies to their customers and have seen positive results from test marketing with a credit card company,” it said.
Business was also said to be strong in both its continental Europe and United States businesses, the latter growing through a series of acquisitions.
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