General insurance sales have performed well during the six months ending December 31, says Yellow Brick Road Executive Chairman Mark Bouris.

The company’s professional services division, which includes general insurance, reported sales of $2.9 million for the six months ending December 31 – a strong result when compared with sales of $2.7 million in all of 2012.

Total revenue on the half-year was up 60% to $15.2 million compared to $9.5 million in the corresponding 2012 period.

With the growth of revenue, operating expenses were up 19% to $9.31 million in the six months ending December 31. This compared to $7.9 million in the corresponding half-year.

But Yellow Brick Road’s after-tax profit was a $3.5 million loss for the half-year – a 4% improvement on the result for the previous corresponding period, which was a loss of $3.7 million.

“In the six months to December 31, the company has advanced the three core elements of the strategy – building a nationally recognised and trusted brand, delivering advice through a growing distribution footprint and developing a comprehensive product suite,” Mr Bouris said.

“The company has been focused on driving some key metrics required for further growth. These include the number of signed branches increasing to 184 and the number of representatives authorised to provide credit or personal advice to 167.

“The growth of the network has resulted in increased flows into our core product offerings with mortgage, investments and insurance books all recording strong increases.”

Yellow Brick Road will launch an online leads generation campaign in the second half of this year with NineMSM and Nine Rewards.