Insurance
2018: No.18 - £360m
2017: No.18 - £290m
Richard Harpin's HomeServe, the Walsall-based home maintenance and insurance firm which he founded in 1993, has had a stellar year, making him one of the biggest winners in this year's Birmingham Post Rich List. Not only are profits and share price up, but the business has strengthened its grip on the trade sector with the acquisition of online platform Checkatrade.
Homeserve previously had a 40 per cent stake in the business. They acquired the remainder in November in a £54 million deal.
The FTSE 250 firm's share price rocketed to a seven-year high in the spring when investors responded positively to a 20 per cent rise in profits. The business reported full year revenues up by £150 million to £785 million. Shares hit their highest value since 2010 when they lost 80 per cent of their worth following a mis-selling scandal.
In the UK the group - worth well over £2.4 billion - took a significant shareholding in Spanish operation Habitissimo, helping it speed up its plan to provide a single online source for home emergencies, repairs and improvements using the web and mobile apps.
The firm is successfully building up its overseas business – in particular the United States where it now has three million customers and 50 million affinity partner households on its books. The company announced a £125 million share placing to fund the purchase of US firm Dominion Products and Services based in Richmond, Virginia.
In 2016 HomeServe completed its largest ever US takeover - the £52 million acquisition of utilities business USP, based in Pennsylvania. The group is seeing its policy of targeting the US market paying off following a £5 million investment in its US operation.
Despite selling five per cent of his stake in the company in 2010, reaping a reported £66 million, Richard Harpin is still a significant shareholder .He is chief executive at Homeserve and commutes by helicopter from his home near York, getting up at 5am to make sure he gets a swimming session in before starting work.
With Homeserve, Richard Harpin has turned an emergency plumbing business backed by South Staffordshire Water into a multinational company. Aged 53, he graduated from the University of York and joined Procter & Gamble’s marketing department. He became a brand manager but left after three and half years to become a management consultant with Deloitte. He stayed there a year before setting up his own management consultancy.
It was when he saw how difficult it was to get a reliable plumber in an emergency that he formulated his business model; an insurance product which would ensure a fast and efficient plumbing emergency service.
After several let-downs, he managed to sell the idea to South Staffordshire Water who gave him £100,000 for 52 per cent of the company. In 1993 HomeServe was born, offering plumbing and drains insurance to water company customers.
Within two years HomeServe was turning in profits, and Richard Harpin successfully marketed the idea to other water companies, giving him total UK coverage. Having access to a large customer base through the water companies, he was able to offer other services. HomeServe now covers electrical wiring, pest control, home decorating, central heating boilers, and glazing.
He is founder and non-executive director of Growth Partners Ltd which helps small consumer businesses achieve growth. He created a new badge for entrepreneurship for the Scout Association,
