HomeServe keeps all staff through virus crisis

The Walsall-based repairs and improvements business delivered strong growth in its financial year to the end of March with adjusted profit before tax expected to be ahead of expectations at around £181m – up 12 per cent on 2018-2019's £161.7m.

HomeServe's around 6,000 office-based staff, including contact centre agents, are all working successfully from home and the business is continuing to respond to emergency repair requests from customers in all the countries where it operates, and is completing an average 150 jobs every hour.

In the field, additional social distancing procedures have been put in place to safeguard engineers and home owners.

The membership business continued to deliver good top line growth with numbers at year end of 8.3 million, including 4.4m in North America. Customer growth in North America and France has offset expected reductions in approximately equal measure in the UK and Spain. Policy retention held firm at 82 per mcent thanks to continued high levels of customer satisfaction.

HomeServe still expects to report its full year results, as planned, on May 19.

At Checkatrade, trades are pro-actively being offered a 50 per cent membership discount for April and May if they want to continue to feature in consumer searches. If they wish to maintain their presence on the platform but, for now, not appear in searches, they are being offered free-of-charge affiliate membership, which is also being offered to new trades that wish to join and build their online presence.

HomeServe's found that response rates to marketing campaigns held up well through March and online new customer sign-ups are continuing .

Going into the quieter period for marketing, the decision has been taken to pause most campaigns.

Checkatrade, Habitissimo and eLocal experienced falling demand from consumers from mid March in light of Government directives to minimise unnecessary contact. The performance of these businesses is currently much less material to the group's overall financial performance, accounting for about 10 per cent of revenue.

HomeServe will continue to make selective investments for the future in anticipation of substantial demand for home repairs and improvements when the period of lockdown ends. While mergers and acquisitions activity is largely on hold, HomeServe is ready to act quickly if opportunities arise.