PayPoint retailers take lion’s share of top prizes at Convenience Retail Awards

Welwyn Garden City, 20 March 2015: Last night’s 2015 Convenience Retail Awards in London saw Heath Stores in Horsmunden, Kent, win the prestigious Community Retailer of the Year Award.  Heath Stores was one of eight retailers in the PayPoint network to win awards. Altogether, 12 of the 17 awards and more than half of the nominations for awards went to PayPoint stores.

Andrew Goddard, Retail Director of PayPoint UK & Ireland, said: “It was a real pleasure to see so many of our retail partners shortlisted for these awards and then walking away with the top awards. Every single one of them has earned the admiration and congratulations of everyone at PayPoint – they are the best at what they do and they do it with enormous commitment, hard work and a real understanding of what their customers want.

 “We were especially pleased for Andrew and Kate Mills of Heath Stores, which won the award for the Community Retailer of the Year, which was sponsored by PayPoint. Heath Stores stands out for its support and development of young people in the village, providing education, training and work experience opportunities. As well as an impressive range of events, sponsorships and fundraising activities, Andrew, Kate and their team support a very wide range of local suppliers, not just of grocery products but crafts, flowers and even joinery.  And they embrace the simple concept of ‘doing a good turn’, such as taking care of elderly and house-bound customers, storing ‘ready call’ loan equipment (such as a wheelchair and walking frame)  and providing a daily meeting place in the store for elderly people who live on their own. That’s what makes a truly great community store.”

Other categories won by PayPoint retailers were:

Convenience Retailer of the Year	Scotmid, Stockbridge
Best Independent Convenience Store	Spar Oxford Road, Manchester
Best Multiple Convenience Retailer	Scotmid, Stockbridge
Best Small Store	Costcutter, Bromsgrove
Best Chilled Food Retailer	Spar Oxford Road, Manchester
Best Customer Service	Scotmid, Stockbridge
Energy Efficient Store of the Year	Scotmid, Moredun
Excellence in Impulse Award	Nisa, Wittlesey
Responsible Retailing Award	Wharfedale Premier, Hull
Best Use of Technology	Costcutter, Bromsgrove
Zero Tolerance for Crime Prevention	Spar Leegomery

Andrew Goddard added:

“Special mention also should go to Costcutter, Bromsgrove and Spar, Oxford Road, Manchester, which each won two awards, and Scotmid Stockbridge, which not only won two categories but was also named Convenience Retailer of the Year - all exceptional achievements.

“We are proud to be associated with these Awards and the retailers honoured last night and hope that the products and services that PayPoint provides them will continue to play their part in ensuring their enduring success at the heart of their communities.”

ENDS…

For further press information, please contact:

PayPoint
Peter Brooker
Head of Corporate Affairs
[email protected]
01707 600356 / 07900 418960

PayPoint Press Office
Karla Winch/Cathy Donald
Brands2Life
[email protected]
020 7592 1200 / 07821 571296

ABOUT PAYPOINT

PayPoint is an international leader in payment technologies, its solutions transforming payments for everyone from consumer and financial services companies to retailers, utilities, media, e-commerce, gaming and government clients.

PayPoint delivers payments and services by taking the complexity of multi-channel payments and translating it into convenient, simple, value-added solutions. It handles almost £15 billion from over 800 million transactions annually for more than 6,000 clients and merchants.

With the backing of 24/7 operations centres with dual site processing, PayPoint is widely recognised for its leadership in payment systems, smart technology and service.

Retail networks

The PayPoint retail network across the UK numbers over 28,200 local shops (including Co-op, Spar, McColls, Costcutter, Sainsbury’s Local, Tesco Express, One Stop, Asda, Londis and thousands of independents), where it processes energy meter pre-payments, bill payments, benefit payments, mobile phone top-ups, transport tickets, BBC TV licences, cash withdrawals and a range of other transactions. In Romania, the retail network numbers over 9,000 terminals in local shops, helping people to make cash bill payments, money transfers, road tax payments and mobile phone top-ups. In the Republic of Ireland, over 500 terminals in shops and credit unions process mobile top-ups and bill payments.

Collect+, a joint venture with Yodel, provides a parcel drop-off and pick-up service at more than 5,800 PayPoint retailers. PayPoint’s ATM network numbers more than 3,900 ‘LINK’ branded machines across the UK, and 9,700 PayPoint terminals enable retailers to accept credit and debit cards.

Mobile and Online

PayPoint Mobile and Online (formerly trading as PayPoint.net, PayByPhone and Adaptis) handles over 142 million payments for parking, payments and consumer services.   In major cities in the UK, Canada, USA, France, Switzerland and Australia, its parking solutions make it easy for people to pay for parking by mobile, as well as providing electronic parking permits, automatic number plate recognition systems for car parks and penalty charge notices.

PayPoint’s core online payments platform is linked to 16 major acquiring banks in the UK, Europe and North America, delivering secure credit and debit card payments for over 4,800 online merchants. Its suite of products ranges from transaction gateway to a bureau service, in addition to value-added services such as FraudGuard, an advanced service that mitigates the risk of fraud in card not present transactions.