Endsleigh Insurance’s pre-tax profits declined from £15.4m in 2009 to £12.7m last year and sales growth dropped to 6.6%, latest accounts reveal.
The Zurich-owned broker’s turnover declined from £58.3m to £54.4m and the directors expect the ‘general level of activity to continue for the foreseeable future', the Companies House filings for 2010 accounts say.
The net pension deficit of the student property specialist reduced from £14.3m to £8.6m.
No final dividend was given. The directors’ report said: “Competitive pressure in the UK is a continuing risk for the company, which could result in it losing sales to its key competitors.
“The company maintains a competitive panel of insurers and constantly reviews margins to ensure competitive pricing. The company further manages this risk by providing added value services to its customers, having fast response times not only in supplying products but in handling all customer queries, and by maintaining strong relationships with customers.
“Additionally, the company operates a niche market which it seeks to protect through a number of relatively long term contractual arrangments with long term business partners.”
In 2008/09, Endsleigh closed 119 retail branches, effectively becoming a web-based broker, resulting in an exceptional cost of £6.9m.
In January, Endsleigh-owned Woodstock Insurance Brokers revealed details of three acquisitions completed in the past year.
At the time, Carlos Thompson, head of business development at Endsleigh Insurance Services said: “We’re keen to build on our successes from last year and further potential acquisitions are already in the pipeline for 2011."
No one from Endsleigh was available for comment.
