PayPoint appears to have weathered the worst of the coronavirus crisis, delivering what CEO Nick Wiles (pictured) described as “a solid first quarter performance during a very challenging period”.
Commenting in the company’s trading update for the three months ended 30 June 2020, Wiles said: “Throughout the pandemic, as well as looking after the welfare of our staff we have remained focused on supporting our clients, retailer partner network, and the most vulnerable in the community.”
Over the quarter, Group net revenue decreased by £1.9m (6.6%) to £26.8m (2019: £28.7m); the reduction included £1.1m net revenue in the prior year from PayPoint’s now-ended contract with British Gas.
UK retail services net revenue increased by 10.3% to £10.8m driven by an increase in card payments as well as service fees from the roll-out of the PayPoint One terminal.
Bill payments net revenue decreased by 28.2% to £8.2m in the UK. Excluding the British Gas impact, net revenue decreased by 20.4% and transactions decreased by 25.0%. PayPoint attributed this to consumers making larger payments, less frequently, during lockdown. Warmer weather compared to the year before was also blamed.
Lockdown also hit the number of transactions across bill payments, top-ups/eMoney, ATMs and parcels hard. All were considerably down year-on-year but are slowly crawling back after a low point in April which saw falls of between 20% and 37%.
Looking ahead Wiles said: “There is evidence of recovery in activity across a number of our services from the low point in April. We are now working hard to build on these positive signs and identify additional opportunities across our business.”
