Luisa Barile: ManyPets targeting growth in lucrative UK market

Ever since taking the reins as group chief executive at Many Group, parent company of pet insurance MGA ManyPets, back in April 2024, Luisa Barile has put plans in place to further grow the business in the UK for 2025.

This revised UK focus was kicked off by the firm exiting the Swedish market on 30 May 2023 and later exiting the US market on 5 November 2024.

Speaking exclusively to Insurance Times as the group published its financial results for the 12 months ending 31 March 2024 back in December, Barile says: “We see the biggest opportunities to continue our market share in the UK.”

ManyPets reported that it had reached £241m in gross written premium (GWP) during the most recent fiscal year, down from £257m in the previous year.

This was a year-on-year GWP decline of 6%, which the company put down to its exit from the Swedish market. 

However, its GWP in the UK and US remained stable year-on-year. The MGA was ranked the third largest player in the UK pet insurance market over the last three financial years, for example, with the group having achieved sales of £630m.

In these financial results, ManyPets’ turnover in the UK was £22.5m, whereas it was £3.6m in the US.

In November 2024, ManyPets confirmed the sale of its US carrier business to a third party, with Odie Pet Insurance having taken over ManyPets’ existing US customers on 1 January 2025. 

This provided a cash injection to allow the group to focus on the UK market.

Barile explains: “Our cash position is very strong, partly helped by the fact that we sold the carrier that we had in the in the US. We’re now at a point where the UK is actually generating cash. We are very clearly on our path to profitability. We have a very clear plan on growing the UK and [are] now focusing on capturing that growth.

“Now, our focus is on profitable, self sustained growth that will help us support pet parents for years to come. Last year’s results are a snapshot of that journey and our current metrics show we are fully on track to profitable growth.”

For Barile, there are many opportunities ahead, as well as questions to answer, such as where to invest and make acquisitions.

“We’ll do that at a point of when we don’t have a lot of competing priorities but, right now, we really want to follow the UK,” she adds.

Loss trajectory

In terms of financial losses, the latest figures evidenced some optimism, with loss ratios more in line with the group’s long-term target of 70%.

The group confirmed that continued high vet treatment inflation costs impacted revenues and the underwriting results from previous years, resulting in a revised loss for the 2022/23 financial year of £67.5m.

This loss, however, improved significantly in 2023 to 2024 to £33m.

In November 2023, the MGA surveyed 73 UK-based vets and the average cost of a vet consultation stood at £53.82.

And in March 2024, this continued inflation prompted the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to provisionally launch a formal market investigation into the vet market, due to rising costs.

Barile says: “The prices for each treatment have increased way above normal inflation. There is a shortage of vets. A lot of vet practices are owned by private equity firms and are consolidated into these big groups.

“The UK is the most consolidated market, which on one hand means more sophistication, so more access to a more sophisticated treatment.”

Barile believes that, due to rising veterinary costs, pet insurance is paramount for pet owners. The MGA also has a helpline to support those going through bereavement and publishes vet-led educational content.

“We really want to become the most inclusive pet insurance provider in the UK. At the moment, we cannot differentiate the liability side from the health side,” she concludes.