Travel and insurance firm Saga saw its profits halve in the first half of the year compared to the same period last year - but the firm insists its mission to turn around its fortunes is on the right track.

In announcing its interim results for the six months ended July 31, 2019, the firm - which is based in Folkestone and has a call centre in Thanet - revealed profits before tax had fallen 52.1% to £52.6million - down from £109.7m on the corresponding period 12 months prior.

In April the company, which specialises in the over-50s insurance and travel market, announced "a fundamental shift in policy" after its annual accounts revealed a 5.4% fall in underlying profits to £180m and forecast profits for the current year to fall to between £105-120m.

It triggered a free fall in its share price, which tumbled almost 40% to an all time low.

Two months later, it was announced CEO Lance Batchelor was to retire at the end of the current financial year, in January 2020.

But it says plans to overhaul its offering - spearheaded by a market-first three-year fixed term car and home insurance policies - were performing well with its cruises also performing well, despite the shadow of Brexit.

It said this week 175,000 customers had taken up its three-year insurance offering, while cruise revenue targets had been achieved with forward bookings of more than 50% of the 2020/21 target.

It launched two new cruise ships in a bid to regain market share this year - the Spirit of Discovery and Spirit of Adventure.

Mr Batchelor, group CEO, said: “We have made good progress against our strategic reset. The sales of our three-year fixed price insurance are encouraging, and a higher proportion of customers are coming to us direct.

"Spirit of Discovery is now fully operational, delighting customers, and delivering on our targets for filling additional cruise capacity into next year.

"We are pursuing a number of initiatives to further improve the performance of our insurance business.

"In tour operations we are adapting to a challenging market by building on differentiated tours and river cruise. Our membership programme is starting to prove effective in helping us develop a deeper relationship with, and sell multiple products to, our members.”

Chairman Patrick O’Sullivan added: “I am pleased with the progress that has been achieved this year. It is early days in our transformation programme and there remains much to do but what we have seen so far gives us confidence that we are pursuing the right strategy.

"The board believes in the opportunity for and ability of the group to return to sustainable growth and restore value for all shareholders and is supporting the executive team as they focus on the profitability of our core travel and insurance businesses as well as the capital efficiency of the group.

"There is real strength in the Saga brand. In order to maximise its potential and realise the value of our strategy we need to serve our customers well with the right products and great service so that we continue to deserve the trust they place in us.”

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