Ripe Thinking Limited, the powerhouse behind the UK’s most successful niche insurance brands, had another successful year in 2016. Results announced today for year-end 31 December 2016 show a 26% year on year increase in turnover – from £7.3 million in 2015 to £9.2 million – making Ripe Thinking Limited one of the industry’s best performers in terms of annual growth. EBITDA remained stable at around £2m, after extensive investment in the company’s portfolio and the introduction of two new brands – Insure4Drones and Insure4Boats.

This is the ninth consecutive year of annual growth for Ripe Thinking Limited and it builds on an incredibly strong previous year which saw turnover up by 25% – from £5.9m in 2014 to £7.3m in 2015.

Commenting on the results, Colin Whitehead, CEO of Ripe Thinking Limited, said:

“Our strong performance has been driven by the introduction of new products where we see demand in niche sectors. It’s been a year of investment and growth and we expect 2017 to be very similar. We’re looking for growth this year to continue at the same rate, across all our brands, and we’ll be introducing more online products to complement our portfolio.”

Ripe Thinking Limited is a tech-driven insurance specialist for niche sectors. Its portfolio of brands – which includes Golf Care, Cycle Plan and Insure4Sport – covers golf, cycling, guns, fishing, music, drones, boats, sports coaches and instructors.

Since starting out in golf insurance nineteen years ago, Ripe Thinking Limited has chosen to disrupt the traditional insurance model. Customer demand and feedback are at the very centre of the product development model. Policies can be tailored around the customer’s needs, so they only pay for what’s essential to them. This approach of unbundling and simplifying its insurance products has allowed the company to significantly expand its customer base.

“We give our customers the chance to hand-pick the aspects of cover most applicable to their needs. Why pay for additional cover that you neither need nor want? It’s old-fashioned and it’s not what people in this day and age are after. Our model allows for greater flexibility, ensuring that these niche sectors are better served”, said Colin Whitehead.

The Ripe Thinking business model is built on marketing, data analytics and a highly efficient online distribution platform, which delivers insurance quickly and effectively to a growing tech-savvy audience. In today’s market, the ‘click and buy’ solution is in increasingly high demand. Ripe Thinking's digital, niche model aims to disrupt traditional insurance by delivering a superior experience and simplicity for its customers.

Colin Whitehead further commented:

“We continue to actively develop more products to complement our portfolio. In 2016 and 2017 we have expanded our marketing and IT teams in order to roll-out new products at a faster rate and better support the continued growth of all our online products. We have also invested heavily in the development of our new, in-house Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform. We manage over 180,000 policies, so our systems have to be highly efficient and scalable. We make sure our technology is the best it can possibly be and we are constantly reviewing and improving it. That way we can deliver the best service to our customers and underpin our future growth.”