Over 50s specialist Saga has cut its annual pre-tax losses by more than half to £129million, with strong performances from its travel and cruises businesses.
Chief executive Mike Hazell said that Saga had put in a strong performance for the 12 months to the end of January, after seeing its revenues climb 12% to £741.1million, its losses fall 53% and its net debt drop from £711.7million to £637million.
Saga’s ocean cruise unit returned to profit, while its river cruises and travel arms recorded their first profits since the pandemic. Their performance helped take the sting out of its weaker insurance division, where its broking profits fell and underwriting slide into the red due to high levels of claims inflation.
The reduced losses at Saga also reflect that its 2023/24 financial year had lower levels of insurance write-offs to deal with. It had £104m of insurance write-offs, versus £269million the year prior. However, its restructuring costs shot up from £3.7million to £40.3million.
Hazell said that while Saga’s insurance operations were being hindered by “challenging conditions”, it is taking action to turn the business around: “We are investing in price to improve our competitive position and stabilise our policy volumes and early signs indicate that this is delivery the expected benefits.”
