Profits grow for pawnbrokers H&T
Pawnbrokers H&T Group, which has shops across the Black Country, saw profits grow in 2018.
The group's latest annual results showed pre-tax profits up 13.4 per cent on 2017 from £11.9 million to £13.5 million.
Chief executive John Nichols said: "Against a challenging background we have produced a strong year's trading performance. Development of our digital strategy, which is focused on complementing our store estate, has been an important feature along with investments in improving our customer experience and partnerships."
He added that there was significant growth in itssecured pawnbroking lending, largely driven by increased customer numbers.
"We also saw good growth in our unsecured lending with many more customers qualifying for our lower cost loans, and where our focus primarily is now aimed at further leveraging our store estate.
"In retail we saw growth as we expanded our new jewellery range and the development of click-and-collect online sales. Click-and-collect also supported growth in our foreign exchange business.
"The group's performance over the past three years demonstrates the continuing success of our strategy to access more customers and markets. Demand for our products remains strong and with further improvements to our delivery capability underway, we look forward to the future with confidence."
The group's pledge book was up 9.5 per cent from £47.5m at the end of 2017 to £52m and the net personal loan book grew 37.6 per cent to £20.5m
The number of shops operated by H&T increased by one to 182 over the course of the year.
