Bumper year for uSwitch as canny customers queue up to save cash
USWITCH said it has seen ‘record’ activity on its website, which helps consumers to compare prices and find better deals for a range of services.
Accounts just filed by the company for the year ending September 30, 2016, show profits of £22.8million on sales up 39 per cent to £67million.
Directors said the rise was due to both increased traffic and transaction volume. They said uSwitch has ‘a leading position in the online energy switching market and continues to develop its switching proposition in the money and insurance sectors to provide diversity and increased growth opportunities’.
The firm was founded by Lord Milford Haven, George Mountbatten, in 2000. He sold it for £10 million six years later.
USwitch is now part of ZPG plc, formerly known as Zoopla Property Group, which floated 40 per cent of the company on the stock market in 2015. Daily Mail and General Trust, publisher of The Mail on Sunday, is its largest shareholder.
Last year uSwitch paid out £14million in dividends, down from £17.7 million the previous year. The highest-paid director – likely to be chief executive Steve Weller – received £452,000 in salary, benefits and bonuses.
During the General Election campaign, uSwitch attacked a Tory plan for a price cap on energy bills, describing it as ‘the death knell of competition’.