Co-operators General Insurance Company has posted its consolidated financial results for the first quarter of 2018, revealing that it has faced some difficulty during the period.

For Q1 2018, consolidated net loss was $27.8 million, compared to net income of $34.6 million for the same quarter last year. This resulted in loss per common share of $1.35 for the quarter, compared to earnings of $1.55 last year.

“We were challenged in our first quarter of 2018 as our net income deteriorated compared to the first quarter last year. This was in the face of large property losses, increasing auto claims costs and unfavourable investment returns,” explained The Co-operators president and CEO Rob Wesseling.

Wesseling added that although the company was off to a rocky start for the year, it saw an increase in premiums across its various products.

“While these factors negatively impacted our results for the first quarter, we continue to achieve a solid rate of growth on the strength of our industry-leading client engagement,” he said. “In the first quarter, net earned premium was up across all core product lines and in every region of the country.”

Direct written premium increased by 11.0% (or $59.4 million) to $599.7 million, compared to last year’s $540.3 million. The Co-operators’ net earned premium increased during the first quarter by 8.0% ($48.8 million) over the same period last year.