humm group continues to rationalise its operations, announcing that it is getting out of the English market.
humm chief executive Rebecca James said that following a review of its overseas expansion plans, the company decided to “wind down active promotion and business development activity in England”.? Speaking at the company’s annual general meeting yesterday, James said humm would continue investing in its Irish business and maintain its UK credit licence to service merchants in Northern Ireland.
James said humm is keen to continue building its business in Canada and is exploring funding opportunities to fund business development there.
The latest cutback follows a number of changes announced in August, when the company presented its 2021/22 financial report. It announced that it had stopped offering hummpro, a BNPL offering for small business, and closed bundll (a BNPL product for small payments) in New Zealand.
The strategy is to reduce its exposure to the small-payment, pay-in-four buy now pay later segment and make big-ticket instalment purchases its core consumer offering.
humm’s consumer division was to have been sold to Latitude Group but the sale was called off in June, following a campaign against the deal by humm founder, director and shareholder Andrew Abercrombie.
The company will continue to offer humm little things, another small-payment BNPL product, but will only offer it through merchants as a companion to its big-ticket offering.
The company will no longer market direct to consumers. In future, sales will be originated through merchants.
humm’s market for “big things” has an average transaction value of A$4000, with spending typically on healthcare, car servicing, home improvements and travel.
The New Zealand consumer business will be based on existing card offerings.
The company included a $207.5 million impairment of goodwill and other intangible assets in its 2021/22 accounts, which tipped it into loss.
It reported a loss for the year of $170.3 million, compared with a profit of $60.1 million in 2020/21.
After adjusting for one-off costs, the company reported a cash profit of $51 million – down 25.3 per cent from $68.4 million in the previous year.
On the commercial finance side of the business, James said yesterday humm is investing in the growth of its business development team and establishing the business in new locations, including New Zealand.