PayPoint continued to deliver profitable growth during the last three months of 2017, helped by a jump in MultiPay transactions and an improved client mix.
For the quarter to December 31, the Group’s like-for-like net revenue grew 3.6% to £31.8m, with PayPoint One driving UK retail services like-for-like sales growth of 4.6%.
UK bill and general net revenue decreased, as anticipated, by 3.3% as transaction volumes declined by 10.5%. This was driven by a 13.9% reduction in prepay energy volume, offset somewhat by continued momentum in MultiPay where transactions increased by 80.1% to 5.6 million.
PayPoint’s strategy of pursuing an increased mix of smaller but higher yielding clients help soften the blow of reduced transactions.
The PayPoint One platform is now live in 7,459 sites, and is on target to hit the 8,000 installation mark by the end of March. Over 100 stores are now using the new Epos Pro software, which launched in November.
Collect+ parcel service volumes declined by 3.1% to 7.0 million. This was put down to reduced volumes in Yodel following a change in the carrier’s commercial terms. PayPoint said this validated its strategy of expanding the parcel service to other companies, hence reducing dependence on any single carrier.
The Group’s Romanian saw net revenue growth of 42.2%, mainly driven by the acquisition of Payzone in October 2017. Total transactions increased by 49.2% to reach 28.7 million.
Dominic Taylor, PayPoint’s Chief Executive, commented: “We are pleased with our performance this quarter as we have continued to drive profitable growth in UK retail services and in Romania. Overall performance for the quarter met our expectations, therefore the full year outlook remains in line with previous guidance.”
