Mutual insurance, retirement and investment group LV= reported a “good performance in a challenging market” as it issued a trading update for the first nine months of the year.

The group, which has offices at Folly Hall in Huddersfield, said gross written premiums on general insurance totalled £1.08bn during the period against £1.13bn for the same nine months last year. The figure for the whole of 2013 was £1.45bn. LV= had 3m motor policies inforce at the end of the nine months against 3.1m last time and £3.1m for all of 2013. Total policies in force amounted to £4.5m against £4.4m before and £4.4m for all of last year.

Life insurance sales were £1.14bn compared with £1.03bn last time and £1.43bn in 2013. The group saw a rise in protection at £170m against £146m before while savings and investments were at £112m compared with £89m before and already exceed the 2013 figure of £101m.

Group chief executive officer Mike Rogers said: “Nine months into 2014, sales in both trading businesses have been good in a challenging market.

“In our life business, sales are up £100m compared to this time last year and we have achieved over £400m of sales in just the last three months. Margins post-budget are generally lower driven by the business mix in our retirement business, but these strong sales are a great achievement and testament to our customer-focused range of products.

“Within retirement, sales are good across the board, with our drawdown products, equity release and our one-year fixed term annuity, which we launched in April, proving particularly popular following the changes announced to the retirement landscape in March.

“Our with-profits investments portfolio continues its strong year with sales now up over 60% compared to 2013. We believe this is also being driven by the pension marketplace changes now annuities are no longer compulsory.

“More retirees are shopping around for investment products with a level of guarantee which these products can offer.

“We offer a full range of ‘at retirement’ products and we are well placed to benefit from the changes as more retirees look for different financial solutions for their retirement.”

Mr Rogers said: “Looking at protection, the last quarter has seen good sales and we are now up £24m compared to this time last year. Given sales were relatively comparable to 2013 three months ago I am particularly pleased with our performance in this last quarter.

“The increase includes strong sales of our new income protection product. In the last few weeks we have also added to our awards portfolio, winning Moneyfacts award for the best income protection provider.

“In general insurance, we continue to diversify away from motor, with SME growth promising with sales up £23m compared to this time in 2013 and we now insure over 800,000 homes and cover 800,000 customers against car breakdown.

“We are proud to have recently been voted Insurer of the Year at the UK Broker Awards, demonstrating our commitment in both commercial and personal lines to an excellent level of service for brokers.

“The portfolio split, with 3m of our customers in car insurance, is reflected in overall gross written premiums, which is down compared to 2013, primarily driven by lower rates in motor, where we continue to see pressure on premiums.

“We have chosen not to take on unprofitable business in motor and to retain strong underwriting discipline. We do not believe current prices are sustainable, however there have been some limited signs of upwards movement in prices recently and we expect them to continue to increase in the coming months.

“Entering the last quarter of the year overall I am pleased with our progress in both business areas.

“I believe our focus on being easy to do business with, caring for our customers, and offering good value products means we are well placed to deliver satisfactory results at year-end.”