Saga Share Discussion Threads

[speedsgh] 29/3/2017 13:25

Hehe. Think we can safely assume that you are not one of their c500k "High-affinity Customers" that they are supposed to have identified. At least I hope not, otherwise they have got their strategy rather wrong!

From today's results...

"Our growing understanding of our customers has provided us with a unique opportunity to use our rich proprietary data to interact with them more efficiently to better understand what they want and to deliver it right across the business. We are also able to identify customers who are more likely to have an affinity with the brand over time, and to use our marketing resources more effectively by targeting and rewarding those customers who are, or have the propensity to be Higher-affinity Customers.

Through this work, we have identified a core group of c.500k HACs that form around 20% of our customer base, and have contributed around 80% of customer value over the last three years. This HAC group has the following key characteristics, all of which deliver greater lifetime value to Saga. They:

· buy premium versions of what we sell;

· have higher retention levels; and

· have a higher propensity to buy multiple products across the Group, holding an average of 2.1 core products each.

We now fully understand the journeys by which these customers have developed a high affinity for Saga and the reasons why certain customers have not. This means that we are now in a position to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our direct marketing model to better identify and target existing or potential HACs.

Historically, we have managed a highly effective product marketing approach, evidenced by our industry leading customer acquisition costs in insurance. This marketing was based on average returns. By looking at it from the viewpoint of customer affinity, rather than by value of product, we can significantly refine this model to increase efficiency.

Just as importantly, we have been able to identify customers who have an affinity with the brand but who currently have neither the long tenure, nor multiple product holdings. By considering their purchasing propensities, we can ensure that we approach and market to them in a way that optimises the likelihood of them developing an affinity with Saga.

We have made a key improvement to our systems capability which will enable us to do this. In our core insurance and travel businesses, we have two excellent acquisition machines, whose demographic focus means we are constantly 'touching' current and new, potentially high-affinity, customers. The improved capability enables us to monitor in real time what customers are doing and, just as importantly, what they have done while journeying through any of our systems, both online and through our call centres. It will also enable us to automatically offer the customer the right product based on their history and their propensity to buy."

[ignoble] 29/3/2017 12:11

Been with Saga for a few years but in the last year have changed Home Insurance to a much cheaper U.K. provider
Have just changed my Saga Car Insurance to a big UK Insurer ....roughly 25% cheaper and excellent customer service.

Need to be careful , imho, that the drive of the business is to increase dividend payment at the cost of being price competitive for their customer base.

All imho , no advice etc

[speedsgh] 29/3/2017 10:51

Dividend details from this morning's results...

Final Results -

"We have continued to deliver on our progressive dividend policy this year, increasing our dividend by 18.1% to 8.5p. This equates to a payout ratio of 62%7 of net earnings, compared to 57%8 in the previous year. Last year, we increased our target payout range from 40%-60%, to 50%-70% as a sign of our confidence that we will continue to deliver strong financial performance. This year's decision to increase the dividend again reflects the Board's ongoing confidence in the sustainability of our dividend policy, which is supported by a strong track record of profit growth and cash generation through our capital efficient model...

...Based on these results and our positive expectations for the business, we are proposing to increase our final dividend to 5.8p, leading to growth in the full year dividend of 18.1% to 8.5p per share...

...The Directors propose a final dividend for the year ended 31 January 2017 of 5.8p per share, which is subject to approval by shareholders at the Annual General Meeting on 22 June 2017 and would be paid on 30 June 2017."


Ex-dividend - Thurs 11 May
Payment - Fri 30 June

[its the oxman] 29/3/2017 09:27

Shares have trending sideways since listing but with decent results hopefully pressure is slowly building for a run to the sunny uplands beyond 250p.

[mj19] 29/3/2017 09:25

Saga has reported solid growth in full-year profits, fuelled by good performances in both its divisions, leading to a cut in net debt and an increased dividend. The compnay saw its underlying pretax profit rise of 5.6% to £187.4m for the twelve months to 31st January. The group's basic earnings per share increased by 6% to 14.1p, while its net debt at the year-end was £464.8m, down 15.1% on a year earlier. The group said its sustained cash generation led to less debt, resulting in the firm being within it's medium term debt range.

[optomistic] 29/3/2017 09:02

Good results...must have been in the price.
Should climb from here over the next 6 months.

[its the oxman] 29/3/2017 08:34

Shares down slightly on results. Not sure what was forecast but overall tone sounds very positive, nice to see debt reduced and big div hike so looks good enough to me.

[yump] 20/3/2017 13:01

I wonder if they will also benefit from a 'luddite' backlash, as I'm sure 9/10 people are sick of talking to call-centres and having to spell out names and words. Sod PC, that is actually what happens and a vast number of people are not happy with that level of service and hassle.

In fact, if Saga moved into mobiles etc. with the same philosophy...??

I talked to someone recently I know who worked putting in call-centres for a bank. Like all very large projects where egos and mini internal empires are at stake, the actual financial justifications are unlikely to ever get revisited. His opinion was that if they were, given the amount of time the operators spend on each call, the whole system would simply not be financially viable.

The original basis worked on paper because of cheaper labour, but of course if the calls take 5x the time... and then the hacked off customer calls back again and again...

and of course we know why the calls take so long, don't we ? although the BBC will never say it.

"While you're on the phone and I'm waiting for that change to go through, I should let you know that you can get £25 if you recommend Virgin to someone. Is there anyone you can think of ?"

"What sort of a stupid question is that ? No, you're fixing the 3rd. problem this year and last time your broadband went off, your engineers didn't work over the weekend, because the problem was not a large enough network problem. In fact, you've now annoyed me so much that I'm going to go around telling people that Virgin is rubbish."

"Now, put me through to the idiot that trains you."

[its the oxman] 20/3/2017 10:33

Wish I bought more now but can't grumble. Should go higher if results are sound. And let's face it, it's target market is only going to get bigger.

[yump] 17/3/2017 17:42

Been very lucky here I just bought a big chunk of these for the divi in a SIPP at about 185p, with the objective of holding them for a long time. Looked like a low, so jumped in.

Perhaps it will hold around the resistance at 220p this time, if there's something material in the air.

[optomistic] 17/3/2017 17:11

Exceptional move from SAGA the last three weeks, it's either some info has slipped out from the impending results or they have become a target.
A 21.7mill uncrosssing trade is unusually large for SAGA!

[optomistic] 28/2/2017 10:01

A good RNS from SAGA this morning.

[yump] 28/2/2017 09:53

Well, at least the Brexit voters can blame the government rather than themselves when they find the going gets tougher and nothing has changed in the way of jobs, immigration, the NHS etc. etc.

Good time to be in the civil service or any pen-pushing admin. job related to government I reckon - at least 3 years of re-jigging every bit of everything related to the EU - special committees etc. etc.

[topvest] 27/2/2017 21:41

Suspect today's discount rate change won't have a material impact on SAGA. Interesting that no RNS though.

What an absolutely ridiculous decision by the Government. Guaranteed to add 5% to insurance premiums from March and destabilising the insurance industry in the meantime as none of the companies were projecting such a low discount rate and this hits their capital surpluses. To me a negative discount rate is ridiculous. I'm an accountant and don't see discount rates below 1% on anything I look at. Having a negative discount rate looks and is totally ridiculous and a direct result of printing money. The government are stoking up massive inflation for later in the year. First food and energy, now insurance. What next?

[poleaxe] 15/2/2017 10:27

Been near there before. It's usually news that moves the sp, with Saga you get hardly any.

[diku] 15/2/2017 10:00

When you look at the header long term chart...around 225p double top?...

[topvest] 14/2/2017 20:57

Yes 50 myself, but I don't class myself as a SAGA customer. Maybe in 10 or 20 years!

[its the oxman] 13/2/2017 21:47

Yes tempted to add as convinced some value here and I am not far off becoming a Saga customer age wise myself.

[topvest] 13/2/2017 20:49

I've bought a few today. Very strong brand in a growth market. Its really an insurance company though. Not convinced about combining with travel and so could well do an Esure type demerger or something.

[its the oxman] 03/2/2017 11:49

Agree, hope next update gets us moving. Down a few % on this but remain hopeful.

[bend1pa] 31/1/2017 13:34

The share price has seriously underperformed the market over the past year by 20%, and it's difficult to see why. No profit warnings or bad results are forecast yet.

[diku] 30/1/2017 10:54

190p anybody?...

[diku] 27/1/2017 15:44

Think US Cruise Liner company will probably buy this out...

[diku] 27/1/2017 13:07

This has a very bizzare price movement...

[diku] 24/1/2017 16:01

The market is currently not appreciating....see what ESUR did....I think similar could happen here...