Personal : signs contract to partner with Sage for immediate launch of Sage Employee Benefits

Personal Group signs contract to partner with Sage for immediate launch of Sage Employee Benefits

Press Release 21 November 2016

Personal Group Holdings Plc

('the Company' or 'the Group')

Personal Group signs contract to partner with Sage for immediate launch of Sage Employee Benefits

Personal Group Holdings Plc [AIM: PGH] (or 'Personal Group' or 'the Company') has signed a three year agreement with Sage (UK) Ltd (or 'Sage'), a subsidiary of Sage Group Plc [SGE.L], to launch Sage Employee Benefits, a new employee engagement product designed for the SME market. This follows an announcement made by Personal Group on 19th April 2016 reporting the signing of a letter of intent with Sage.

Personal Group is providing Sage, the UK' s largest software company, with its proprietary technology platform Hapi. This Software as a Service (SaaS) platform will operate on a monthly subscription model for Sage's payroll customers with no upfront fee. This is a significant step in the continuing advancement of Personal Group's delivery of leading employee benefit packages and is a significant extension of Hapi.

Launching immediately, Sage Employee Benefits will be sold by Sage initially to its Payroll 50 customers reaching approximately 50% of the private sector employees in the UK. Sage Employee Benefits uniquely integrates the Hapi platform with the Sage Payroll 50 product. This agreement opens up a completely new and incremental channel to market for the Company to target the 15.7million* employees in the SME sector.

The new product provides a range of key advantages to business owners, offering their employees access to savings and discounts across hundreds of retailer locations, salary sacrifice options, insurance protection, a hospital cash plan and health and wellbeing support. This employer paid product is a distillation of the tried and trusted programs which Personal Group successfully provides to some of the largest employers in the UK. The Board believes that this sector has, up until now, been unable to access advanced employee benefits packages of a breadth and quality provided by many of the UK's largest employers.

Because it's based on the Hapi platform, Sage Employee Benefits is fully optimised for the delivery of useful applications, enabling employees to access and manage the suite of benefits directly from their smartphones.

Mark Scanlon, Chief Executive of Personal Group, said: 'The launch of Sage Employee Benefits is a landmark achievement for Personal Group. It provides SMEs with the opportunity to offer employee benefits of a breadth and quality previously the preserve of large organisations.
'Personal Group's significant investment over recent years in Hapi is what makes Sage Employee Benefits possible. This fully enabled SaaS product has no upfront fee for employers just a simple monthly subscription.

'Personal Group is a leading player within the employee benefits industry and partnering with Sage takes this expertise to a new market. With access to the SME market, initially through this agreement, our private sector market opportunity has increased from 10.5 million* to 26.2 million* employees in the UK.'

Jacqueline de Rojas, MD Northern Europe at Sage, said, 'We work hard to make life easier for business owners to succeed. Not only by championing their causes but also by creating an eco system for their employees to engage with and to benefit from.

'The launch of Sage Employee Benefits brings this to life. Benefits that were once the preserve of large organisations are now accessible and affordable for Sage 50 Payroll customers.

'We believe in smart partnerships and are delighted to have brought Sage Employee Benefits to market with Personal Group.'

* Source: Office for National Statistics, 2016.

~ENDS~