High street name Ramsdens has seen its pawnbroking books boosted to £7.5m in the first half of the year as consumer habits return following the pandemic.
The Middlesbrough-based lender and retailer saw its loan book grow from £5.7m in the same period of 2021 and said the squeeze on household incomes would likely lead to further lending.
CEO Peter Kenyon said: “Pawnbroking is growing, really as a result of things normalising. In Covid times you couldn’t go out, you couldn’t get a coffee or a beer so people spent less and paid off their loans. People have spent more over the last 12 months, they start to overspend, have gaps in cashflow and they are starting to be impacted by rising living costs and pawnbroking is that short term, small sum solution for people, so demand has increased on pawnbroking.
