Good start to year for HomeServe

Walsall-based HomeServe saw pre-tax profits fall despite a more than £20 million rise in revenue in the six months to the end of September.

The home repairs business reported revenue up from £241.7m for the same period last year to £262.3m, but the profits figure was down from £25.3m to £21.3m.

The total customer numbers figure for the group was up from 5.9 million to 6.6m.

Chief executive Richard Harpin said: "We have made a good start to the year, increasing our customer numbers by 12 per cent to 6.6m with over two-thirds of customers now outside the UK.

"In addition to delivering good customer service, the UK business has increased gas service delivery capability with the recent acquisition of a heating business based in Nottingham with over 150 gas engineers. We are also delighted that our new partnership with Lyonnaise des Eaux in France has had a strong start.

"In the USA, customer numbers are up 24 per cent and we continue to see excellent growth prospects as we signed a further six new partners, now serving 31m households. We remain confident in our expectations of good growth for the full year."

In the UK customer numbers remained stable at 2.1m with 131,000 gross new customers added in the year - an increase of 20 per cent. The retention rate for customers was 83 per cent. UK revenue was up from £120.2m in the same period in 2014 to £123.6m.