Paypoint plc : PAYPOINT EXPANDS ITS FIELD SUPPORT TEAM BY 50%

PAYPOINT EXPANDS ITS FIELD SUPPORT TEAM BY 50%

PayPoint has boosted its dedicated field support team from 42 to a force of 60 Territory Development Managers in a move that will enhance relationships with retailers and help them profit from the new technology and schemes introduced by the company. The enlarged team will combine both field sales and operations.

Comment from Seamus Smith, MD of PayPoint UK:

"As PayPoint has grown, both in the size of our network and the scope of the products and services we offer to our retail agents and their customers, our relationship with our retailers has evolved, so that our field representatives now provide valuable advice and support to their businesses.

"We now have an extensive portfolio of retail and business services designed to help our retailers build their businesses and improve profitability, covering many aspects of running a busy shop. Increasingly, we are assisting our retailers to profit from new technology, such as contactless card payments and Business Broadband; from extending the range of services they can offer to attract more and new customers, such as money transfer, ATMs and the unique CollectPlus parcel service; and from managing their costs more effectively through exclusive deals with major suppliers, such as our business banking arrangement with Barclays.

"Our aim, therefore, is to further improve the service we provide to our retailers, to better able them to benefit from being part of the PayPoint network. With more Territory Managers, each with a smaller territory, they will be responsible for fewer retailers, so have a greater knowledge and understanding of their businesses, enabling them to forge closer relationships with every PayPoint retailer in their territory. In turn, our retailers will have improved access to additional and new PayPoint products and services.

"Our new Territory Managers will be able to provide better training, especially for new and part-time staff, to complement the written and online training materials we issue on a regular basis, and retailers will find it much quicker to resolve any issues or queries they might have.

"We're proud to be creating this number of new jobs in such a challenging economic environment."

The expansion of its field support team is in addition to a range of improvements that PayPoint has recently made to enhance retailers' experiences of partnering with PayPoint. These include new 'back office' processes for handling applications to become a PayPoint retailer and installing new terminals, and for finding out more about and implementing new products or services.

At the same time, PayPoint has launched MyPayPoint.com, its new, free extranet on which retailers can access all the information they need to manage their relationship with PayPoint, including their weekly statements and payments records, commonly used forms, FAQs and a library of bulletins and communications normally delivered by post.

Ends….

Enquiries:
Peter Brooker
Head of Corporate Affairs
01707 600356 / 07900 418960
peterbrooker@paypoint.co.uk

Robin Granger / Karla Winch
Brands2Life
020 7592 1200 / 07940 422 931 / 07793 287 749
PayPoint@Brands2Life.com

ABOUT PAYPOINT
PayPoint is a leading international provider of convenient payments and value added services to major consumer service organisations in the utility, housing, water, telecoms, media, financial services, transport, retail, e-commerce, gaming and public sectors. PayPoint delivers payments and services through a uniquely strong combination of local shops, internet and mobile distribution channels and handles over £11 billion from over 600 million transactions annually for more than 5,000 clients and merchants.

Retail networks
The PayPoint branded retail network in the UK numbers over 23,500 local shops (including Co-op, Spar, McColls, Costcutter, Sainsbury's Local, One Stop, Londis and thousands of independents). Collect+, a joint venture with Yodel, provides a parcel collection and drop off service at more than 4,600 PayPoint retailers. Its ATM network numbers more than 2,500 'LINK' branded machines across the UK, mainly in the same sites as PayPoint terminals.

In Romania, the branded retail network numbers over 6,600 terminals located in local shops, processing cash bill payments for utilities and mobile phone top-ups. In the Republic of Ireland, over 500 outlets in shops and credit unions process mobile top-ups and bill payments.

Internet
PayPoint.net is an internet payment service provider linking into all major UK acquiring banks to deliver secure online credit and debit card payments for over 5,000 web merchants. It offers a comprehensive set of products ranging from a transaction gateway through to a bureau service and FraudGuard, an advanced service to mitigate the risk of fraud.

PayByPhone
PayByPhone is a leading international provider of services to parking authorities allowing consumers to use their mobile phones to pay for their parking by credit or debit card. It has contracts in the UK, France, Canada and the USA.

PayPoint is widely recognised for its leadership in prepayment systems, smart technology and consumer service.