Novuna Consumer Finance (formerly Hitachi Capital Consumer Finance), one of the UK’s leading retail PoS and personal lending providers, has reported another strong year, with pre-tax profits in FY21/22 of £58.6m, despite significant headwinds impacting both the business and its 3500 retail partners across the year.
Following a challenging start to FY21/22, Novuna says it was swift to identify and capitalise on emerging pockets of potential as Covid-19 restrictions eased and consumer confidence recovered, albeit slowly, due to a release of pent-up demand. This approach resulted in buoyant sales growth across key retail sectors, including furniture, electrical and home improvements. New business volumes closed the year at £2.3b, up £500m from last year’s posting of £1.8b.
The growth in online retail activity, accelerated by the pandemic, helped to drive a +34% increase in lending volumes via ecommerce channels – over £200m – with the onboarding and integrating of over 100 new retailers over the course of the year.
The business, which serves over 1.2 million customers, continued to invest in technology, implementing a proprietary soft-search product for retail partners. Novuna’s personal loans business also performed strongly.
In February, the business underwent a strategic rebrand from Hitachi Capital Consumer Finance to Novuna Consumer Finance, following the merger in 2021 of its parent company, making it part of Mitsubishi HC Capital Inc, one of the world’s largest and most diversified financial groups.
Vincent Reboul, MD of Novuna Consumer Finance (pictured), says: “The last 12 months have been particularly challenging for the sectors in which we operate, but these results demonstrate our ability to evolve our offering quickly to meet the needs of our customers, whilst still delivering outstanding customer service.
“Despite difficult market conditions we delivered over £2b in new business, as we continued to invest in new technology platforms enabling better customer experiences, optimised credit decisioning and delivering operational efficiencies. We also successfully launched our new brand in the UK retail and consumer lending space with a fresh image which resonates with the way we do business. The results, and our continued investment in our people, mean we are well placed to continue to cement our position as one of the UK’s leading providers of consumer credit, despite the prevailing challenges weakening consumer confidence.”