HomeServe (HSV) looked across the Atlantic to increase its customer numbers last year. After acquiring Utility Service Partners (USP) - one of North America's largest emergency home assistance companies - in July, the group signed 100 new utility partnerships. It now offers products to 50m households, with a goal to reach 80m.
The purchase of USP added 0.4m new customers, which helped push customer numbers up by 0.7m to 3m. As a result, sales in this immature market were up by almost half to £228m. Within the higher-margin French business sales were up 2 per cent at constant currency, helped by its partnerships with water and waste companies Suez and Veolia. In Spain the newly rebranded HomeServe Spain's claims handling business increased its market share. However, after ceasing its partnership with Agbar, its affinity partner households dropped to 12 from 15 in the previous year.