Surrey-headquartered motor and home insurance provider esure Group Plc has released its annual report and accounts for the year ended December 31, 2021 – a period in which the company redeveloped its key metrics as part of its so-called “game-changer” strategy.
“2021 was a year of solid progress for esure,” stated chief executive David McMillan (pictured). “The group continued to grow its motor and home customer base conservatively, maintaining underwriting discipline against a backdrop of soft market prices. By the end of the year, we made significant progress towards the re-platforming of the business and expect to be launching new digital customer propositions and journeys in 2022.
“I continue to be very proud of the commitment of our people in going the extra mile for customers, particularly during the country’s extended lockdown. We continued to invest in the business in support of our ambition to become the UK’s leading digital insurer.”
According to esure’s annual report, here’s how the UK personal lines insurer performed in 2021:
|
Metric |
2021 result |
2020 result |
|
Number of in-force policies |
2.54 million |
2.45 million |
|
Trading profit |
£83.5 million |
£82.6 million |
|
Profit before tax |
£5.2 million |
£34.2 million |
|
Profit after tax |
£7.7 million |
£29 million |
Broken down, esure’s trading profit for motor declined from £126.9 million in 2020 to £106.9 million last year, while that of home saw an increase from £0.2 million previously to 2021’s £18.8 million.
McMillan noted: “In-force policies surpassed 2.5 million for the first time as more customers chose esure insurance products. This represented an increase of 3.4% on the previous year, achieved in spite of the challenging market rating environment. By the end of the year we had secured top four positions on each of the main price comparison websites.
“Our ongoing investments in pricing sophistication and data science have enabled us to grow while balancing the need for pricing discipline. This should place us in good stead once the rating cycle turns. We have introduced a suite of new data sets and towards the end of the year launched machine learning operations capability which will enable the development of artificial intelligence throughout the group.”
The CEO also highlighted that 42% of esure’s sales and service journeys now occur online.
“2022 looks set to be another year of uncertainty,” added McMillan, “as the market and rating cycle adjust to the FCA GIPP (Financial Conduct Authority general insurance pricing practices) regulations in, hopefully, a post-pandemic world. However, I believe that esure is positioned well for continued growth. The progress we have made against our strategy is a solid foundation for the next stage in our development.”
