tcb and quidco profits

[sdesousa]

[quote="disneyfan it seems if they don't want to pay you then they don't pay you and there's not a lot you can do about it unfortunately.[/quote]

Exactly the experience I have been having of late, complete lack of communication on enquiries and the fair play guarantee scheme they had seems to have been forgotten or disregarded.

[markro]

Cashback sites are becoming increasingly popular. It is good to see imutual listed with the big boys on Martin Lewis' MoneySavingExpert website. I keep his comparison of % cashback page on my bookmarks. It's at:

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/shoppi ... omparison/

All you need to do is enter the merchant and he will provide an up to date comparison of which cashback site gives the best deals. It's also useful as a checker for which cashback sites have which merchants on their books.

Markro

[kevinchess1]

tcb have just published their accounts for the year to 31 Jan 2013 (figures in brackets are for the previous year):

TURNOVER £30,839,725 (£21,185,788)
Costs of sales £26,498,878 (£18,335,076)
GROSS PROFIT £4,340,847 (£2,850,712)
Admin expenses £3,620,405 (£1,252,329)
OPERATING PROFIT £720,442 (£1,598,383)
Interest etc £67,271 (£65,181)
Exceptional items £0 (£1,074,255 )
PROFIT BEFORE TAX £787,713 (£589,309)
Corporation Tax £202,232 (£101,773)
PROFIT FOR YEAR £585,481 (£487,536)

The two directors received £294,880 in remuneration and dividends.

This is a very good set of results for tcb shareholders, and shows that the industry that imutual operates in has huge potential.

I hope to be announcing imutual's results by the end of next week. In the meantime, a few observations on the above...

Turnover is the income generated for the cashback site by its members.

Cashback earned by members is included in "Cost of sales". Whether it includes anything else of significance is not stated. e.g. the £10 tell-a-friend payments must amount to quite a bit; I'd guess that they're included in this figure. Anyway, the gross profit (difference between income received and amount paid out in cashback and referral bonuses) has increased from £2.85m to £4.34m. Note that this covers the period before they introduced £5 admin fees

Administration expenses - these are the general costs of running the company i.e. not directly related to sales. In a two year period, these overheads have increased dramatically - from £684k to £3.62m. By way of comparison, imutual's overheads in last year's accounts were £37,430. So when people point out that competitor X or Y offers something we don't, they should bear in mind that we spend 99% less running the company

At the year end, they had 52 staff (we have 3!) and £6.5m cash in bank.

I hope this is of interest. The purpose of posting these is not to be critical of competitors but to ask the question: "If we could achieve a similar size, what would we do differently?"

When we post our latest accounts (hopefully at the end of next week), I'll draw an interesting comparison between our financial performance and that of our competitors since imutual started...

[macliam]

Hmmm .... doesn't say much for the advertising, does it. Bottom line is up from last year but still less than 2 years ago.

I agree with previous comments about customer care and responsiveness - when Quidco started, it was touted as "the cashback cooperative" ..... you wouldn't think that now, would you? I too have had issues with both Quidco and TCB and rarely visit them these days (mostly to see if they've actually got around to progressing outstanding claims). Once my current claims are settled, it's unlikely I'll use them again - which is hardly a recommendation.

iMutual still has the benefits of being fairly small - and although growth is an enviable target, growth at the expense of selling ones soul to the big boys has to be thought through carefully.

[kevinchess1]

iMutual still has the benefits of being fairly small - and although growth is an enviable target, growth at the expense of selling ones soul to the big boys has to be thought through carefully.

Indeed. The difference with us, though, is that our members are the shareholders and can therefore exercise their votes to make sure a bigger company continues to be run in their interests

[kevinchess1]

52 staff!
What do they all do all day
Say a couple on Queries, one person adding new merchant one (at most) 1 on comps and the rest...
Having meetings

[pammur]

I agree with the comments above about how Quidco and TCB have changed recently. In particular, Quidco had to pay an ex gratia payment for my house insurance which was paid in one amount and still took many months to fight for. I still have an outstanding £40 for something which I have nagged and nagged about. You just get a standard reply from them which indicates they either haven't read, or haven't understood the problem (and that it shouldn't be happening). For me, I still have to wait and see how successful iMutual is. I like the concept, however, and hope that iMutual's relationships with the affiliates are sound as they seem to have the power.

[davidlmorgan85]

Thanks for the post, pammur, and for giving imutual a chance to prove itself

Due to their size, these two sites have enormous bargaining power with their merchants, much more so than imutual does at present. They ought to be able to use this to insist that transaction tracking is supremely reliable. It is therefore something of a puzzle to see an increasing number of complaints, either on their own sites or third party forums.

The fact that imutual has been able to compete on both price and service, even with its current modest size of membership, augurs well for the future

[macliam]

Thanks for the post, pammur, and for giving imutual a chance to prove itself

Due to their size, these two sites have enormous bargaining power with their merchants, much more so than imutual does at present. They ought to be able to use this to insist that transaction tracking is supremely reliable. It is therefore something of a puzzle to see an increasing number of complaints, either on their own sites or third party forums.

The fact that imutual has been able to compete on both price and service, even with its current modest size of membership, augurs well for the future

I agree - but, as with pammur's comment, the biggest issue is with the "customer service". I think there is nothing more annoying than the realization that someone has just not bothered to read the information you've provided and are just trotting out the "same old, same old".

To this extent I have been pleased with iMutual as it has been possible to have a conversation, rather than a one-way communication. If this can be sustained (and I say "if" in the full realization that things get more difficult as a company gets bigger) then I think this augurs well for the future.

[kevinchess1]

Qwiditchco use to have something called 'Sureshop?
Where merchants signed up to better tracking and claims
If I remember the merchant had a tight timescale to refuse claims
No sign of it mow