Higher premiums boost Admiral
Car insurer Admiral posted record profits today after “a high adrenaline combination” of rapid growth in the number of vehicles on its books and “dramatic” price hikes.
The firm behind Diamond and elephant.co.uk said the number of vehicles it insured in the UK increased 32% to 2.5 million as it hiked prices by less than its competitors.
The strong growth of its car insurance business helped push Cardiff-based Admiral’s turnover up 47% to £1.58bn (€1.86bn) in 2010 and pre-tax profits rose 23% to £266m (€314m).
But its price comparison website confused.com suffered a “disappointing” year in which its adverts flopped against competition from Go Compare’s opera singer, Compare The Market’s meerkats and Moneysupermarket’s campaign fronted by comedian Omid Djalili.
Confused’s profits fell 34% to £16.9m (€19.9m) in the year although it said a new marketing campaign launched at the end of the year helped the site’s share of the car insurance market to stabilise.
The car insurance industry has seen a large increase in premiums in 2010 after an increase in fraudulent cash-for-crash claims and as insurers move to increase profit margins, which were hammered in recent years after the introduction of price comparison websites.
