CPP has reported its first year of growth in six years as bosses hail 2017 as “one of the most important years in CPP’s history”.

The company, which historically specialised in credit insurance, but now incorporates product based technology, posted revenues of £91.4 million in its latest accounts, up 24 per cent from the year before.

In the year ending December 31, 2017 the firm, which operates its UK business from York, returned operating profits of £3.5 million, turning around a loss of £1.8 million recorded the year before.

During the period the business moved its group wide global headquarters, previously located at Holgate Business Park, to Leeds, leaving only its UK operations in York. It said the strategy was part of a move to “a decentralised operating structure, giving our individual country operations greater responsibility and commercial freedom”.

Jason Walsh, chief executive officer at CPP, said: “This was one of the most important years in CPP’s history, one in which we not only significantly improved the financial performance of the Group but also, and more importantly, refocused it for future growth and prosperity.

“Today CPP is a fundamentally stronger and more energised business than before. Our international business is continuing to grow rapidly and together with once again having an approved company as an intermediary in the UK market we will continue to develop suites of innovative technology-based protection services that will benefit all our markets.

“Our corporate office is much smaller and our core team are sufficiently nimble to take advantage of growth opportunities.

“ Our strong balance sheet and cash resources give us ample opportunity to invest in new products and services or make strategic acquisitions, while our growing array of partners will enable us to bring our services to market. We are looking forward to another year of growth in 2018.”

CPP’s worldwide customer numbers increased by 26 per cent to 5.5 million across 11 countries.

The group saw further expansion of its product development capability with the recent acquisition of a” strategic minority stake” in KYND Limited, a London-based cyber security diagnostics provider.