Morses Club in Batley expecting profits to be hit

The Batley-based firm said the performance of its Home Collect Credit (HCC) division in the 53-week period ended February 29, 2020 has been very strong in a sector that continues to face headwinds and is expected to maintain like-for-like profitability.

Total credit issued of £174.2m was slightly lower at -2.4 per cent year-on-year.

Paul Smith, CEO of Morses Club, said: "This year for the Group has been transformational in terms of diversification and product offering.

"The strong financial performance of the HCC division ensures that we have a strong financial bedrock to enhance our strategic plan.

"The business is undergoing a significant development phase which is necessary to deliver a broader offering to our customers.

"The strong customer response to the introduction of key initiatives in HCC, such as the customer portal, is testament to our long-term strategic approach.

"In our Digital division, we have looked holistically at our recently acquired digital businesses so that we create an end-to-end customer platform that is wholly relevant to Morses Club's existing and future customers.

"Whilst the re-engineering of these businesses has taken longer than we initially anticipated, we continue to meet the strategic milestones we have set ourselves and the diversification of our business puts us in a strong position to benefit from demand from the wider non-standard credit market.

"The growth potential for our Digital division is significant. Whilst we intend to continue our investment phase to ensure that we provide our customers with an expanded and complementary offering to our core HCC offering, we are confident in the long-term strength of the business and continue to look for opportunities to grow both our HCC business and digital offering."