Health and life insurer Vitality has released its annual results for the year ending June 2015 showing a 16 per cent increase in pre-tax operating profit to £42.8m across its two brands, VitalityHealth and VitalityLife in the first year of operations since its rebrand last November.
Alongside this, other key financial metrics from the combined businesses included covering 867,000 customers, an increase of 15 per cent, with overall premiums/revenue up by 11 per cent to £533m and combined business sales down 2 per cent to £105m.
Vitality said the success of the two businesses is due to a number of factors, both at a product and brand level, with highlights including the launch of Vitality GP.
This is a unique telemedicine service which integrates Vitality lifestyle and wellness data with clinical data to provide a holistic view of a member’s health.
It added that the success of the two businesses is also due to the launch of VitalityLife’s LifeStyleCare cover, a flexible life policy to help people who fall ill later in life and for the period from June to September 2015 and 55 per cent of new business included Vitality Optimiser.
Vitality Optimiser integrates life insurance and Vitality benefits.
Vitality also said it experienced strong member engagement with its existing product range and the new Active Rewards benefit which launched at the start of 2015, and that member engagement results include 1.2m Virgin Active gym visits over January to June 2015, 500,000 films viewed at Cineworld and 95,000 Vitality Age completions over January to June 2015.
Vitality’s parent company, Discovery, ranked 17 of 51 companies in Fortune magazine’s global top companies changing the world.
It also added that the success of its business was down to the extensive national awareness campaign since rebrand across TV, press, out of home and digital and significant sports sponsorship portfolio established across rugby, football, cricket, netball, cycling and most recently, naming rights to Bournemouth AFC’s stadium.
Neville Koopowitz, chief executive officer at VitalityHealth, said: “Vitality’s overall purpose is to deliver our shared value model; a unique approach to insurance that uses incentives to encourage better lifestyle choices.
“Our data shows this leads to healthier members, lower claims and more productive and engaged employees. This is good for our members, good for us and good for society as a whole. The past year has seen us develop innovative products, such as Vitality GP, bring on Partners that can offer more compelling rewards to our members, and raise awareness of our brand with consumers and advisers alike.
“All of these activities have resulted in a significant increase in engagement and I look forward to building on this success over the next 12 months.”
ruth.gillbe@ft.com
