Mortgage franchise Yellow Brick Road (YBR) reported a cash surplus of $600,000 for the 2017 financial year, celebrating the company's ability to create this type of financial outcome.
“This is a positive result that shows our momentum in delivering on the strategy we have set out. A key part of this strategy is to diversify revenue streams not just for the company, but for our brokers – and of course to better service our customers,” YBR executive chairman
Mark Bouris told
Australian Broker.
“In this vein, the growth of Vow Commercial and the scaling up on Wealth is an important achievement. The four strategic priorities we’re focused on are distribution growth, diversification, margin and brand – and there has been solid progress on all fronts.”
On a quarterly basis, YBR's reported net operating cash surplus actually dropped by 70% from $350,000 to $150,000 from the third to fourth quarter respectively.
Group loans under management increased by 21% year-on-year to $44.6bn while overall settlements increased by 3% to $3.7bn during this time period – a welcome change under tough lending market conditions.
Commercial lending was a big performer for YBR, growing by 52% over the same 12 month time period. Shaw reported that this was a result of increased recruitment of “qualified commercial brokers” at Vow Commercial which is owned by the firm.
YBR reported progress on training and lending to improve overall levels of lending productivity. Throughout the 2017 financial year, the firm added more than 20 new franchises to the pipeline with recruitment and induction ensuring that around 50% of new franchisees write business immediately on commencement. The firm now has more than 150 franchises across the country.
The total number of representatives at Yellow Brick Road and Vow has grown by 6% to 1,585 between the fourth quarter of this year and of the last.
“We look for recruits who share our values and focus on customer service, and, where possible, have a few years’ experience in broking or financial advice,” Bouris said.
“Then we provide an immersive, three-day induction. Our learning and development is about equipping the broker to run a successful business and deliver for their clients. Compliance is a key part of this, but it’s not about box-ticking or paperwork – it’s about getting things right at the outset through good processes and technology.”
From day one, franchisees and credit representatives have access to credit coaches, wealth experts and marketing specialists as well as a specialised marketing automation platform, Bouris said.
Further investment has also been made in the Vow CRM program, Symmetry, to improve broker productivity and increase search accuracy. YBR has also boosted lead management abilities through the Ruby application.
“We’ve made several upgrades to Symmetry that have been well-received by our Vow brokers, and are focused on continuous improvement – we’ll see some significant developments in coming months.
“Our franchisees have been loving Ruby. It makes their lead management easier, but it also gives us fast, detailed data and insights. We can see which campaigns are hitting the mark, which branches are responding to leads effectively and those who need more support. It makes the most of every lead we receive.”
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