ONLINE price comparison site Moneysupermarket.com improved revenue and pre-tax profit levels for the year to December 31.

The business, based in Ewloe, near Chester, reported a 9% rise in turnover to £148.9m and a jump in pre-tax profits from £3.18m in 2009 to £11m last year.

A strong second half for most categories of business helped boost the firm’s fortunes.

Money deals enjoyed a 20% increase in the second six months compared with a 10% improvement in the first half.

Home services also improved in the second half, up from 10% to 14%, while insurance grew by 13% compared with 10% in the first half. Travel managed to arrest its decline, showing a 5% fall in revenues during the second half compared with a 21% slide in the first.

The group is debt free and by the year end held a cash balance of £36.6m.

During the year it added six new channels to its website offering.

Chief executive Peter Plumb said: “2010 was clearly a good year for moneysupermarket.com.

“We saved our customers £750m as more and more people bought their car insurance, savings accounts and credit cards through our market-leading site.

“Looking ahead, 2011 has started well.

“We have the right strategy and a clear programme of continued investment for our technology and brand.

“Our business is well placed to continue to benefit from consumers’ growing use of price comparison sites in a time when there has never been a bigger need to watch the pennies.

“We are confident that moneysupermarket.com will continue to make good progress through the year.”

Investment in future growth strategies includes a 20% increase in offline advertising, including its first major TV sponsorship of ITV’s Britain’s Got Talent show which will be screened during the second quarter of 2011.

Stockbroker Investec said today the Ewloe firm’s results contained no surprises, with its figures in line with forecasts: “The outlook is encouraging and feels like no material change to forecasts at this stage.”