Gocompare’s pre-tax profit more than doubles

Price comparison site Gocompare.com made a pre-tax profit of £30.1m in 2010, up 148% on the £12.1m it made in 2009.

Turnover increased 35.5% to £101.5m from £74.9m, while quote volumes increased 47% to 28.5m from 19.4m.

“We benefited from a greater share of the comparison market during 2010 as consumer awareness of the Gocompare.com brand surged. This produced a result well ahead of our expectations,” said Gocompare chief executive Hayley Parsons in a statement.

However, given the competitive market, Parsons warned that 2010’s performance may not be repeatable this year.

“We are in a highly competitive distribution sector serving a super competitive insurance industry. The continuing increase in insurers’ rates and the impact of motor personal injury claims continue to provide powerful incentives for customers to compare their current deals,” she said. “This is making our market place very competitive and our peers are investing significant sums of money. We are very mindful of this and can’t expect 2011 to necessarily follow the same growth patterns.

Parsons indicated back in July that Gocompare was on track to more than double profits in 2010.