Profits and revenues up at doorstep lender Morses Club

Paul Smith, CEO of Morses Club, said the group is well placed to grow amid the uncertainty caused by the EU referendum,

Morses Club grew its revenues by 10 per cent during its first year on the Stock Exchange, with profts before tax up to Â£17.7m.

The Birstall-based firm, the second largest doorstep lender in the UK, saw revenue of £99.6m come into the business up from £90.6m the year prior.

Its net loan book grew by eight per centto £61.2m with customers numbers now up to circa 216,000 - an increase of nine per cent.

A cost efficiency programme delivered meagre results, with costs as a percentage of income declining to 56.9 per cent, down from 58.9 per cent.

Adjusted profit before tax increased to £17.7m from £16.8m and reported profit before tax was £11.2m.

A proposed final dividend of 4.3p is being presented to shareholders.

The firm cited operational highlights such as continued evolution of new technology and capabilities to enhance customer and agent experience.

It launched new products including Morses Club Card (cashless lending) in April 2016 and Dot Dot Loans (online lending) in March 2017

Morses Club successfully floated on London Stock Exchange last year

Paul Smith, Chief Executive Officer of Morses Club, said: “I am pleased to report a strong set of full year results in our first year as a publicly listed company, reflecting continued successful delivery of our strategy. We have increased our customer numbers and built on our established market position, whilst remaining focused on high quality lending. We continue to invest in technology to support our strategic plan to offer customers a broader range of products and the ability to access credit more flexibly, as demonstrated by the launch of the Morses Club Card and Dot Dot Loans.

“The enhancements made to our technology platform have significantly improved the effectiveness and efficiency of our model, increasing managers’ capacity to service more customers by 28%, unencumbered by time consuming paperwork and processes, whilst at the same time maintaining our high standards of customer satisfaction and embedding regulatory compliance.

“We remain confident in our outlook. We have made a strong start to the current year in terms of both credit issued and customer numbers. A significant pipeline of territory builds is bringing with it high quality growth, and we continue to see attractive acquisition opportunities in the wider non-standard finance market.”