Dominic Taylor and Tim Watkin-Rees of PayPoint plc, based in Welwyn Garden City, have been recognised as two of the UK’s leading entrepreneurs.

The directors of the UK’s leading cash and internet payment services company fought off intense competition to scoop the prestigious Ernst & Young Science & Technology Entrepreneurs Of The Year award.

The event, sponsored by the CBI, was held at The Park Lane Hilton Hotel and hosted by Joanna Lumley.

Described by the judges as having tenacity, determination and perseverance, Dominic Taylor and Tim Watkin-Rees have grown PayPoint into an international business valued at over £300 million through a combination of organic growth, innovation and acquisitions. The company handles over 10 million transactions every week on behalf of its 6,000 clients through its network of over 27,000 local retailers in the UK, Ireland and Romania. PayPoint has established a reputation for introducing innovative new services for its retailers that attract more people into their stores and grow their sales.

PayPoint employs over 250 people at its Shire Park headquarters in Welwyn Garden City, where the business was founded in 1996.

Richard Hall, UK Entrepreneur Of The Year Leader and Partner at Ernst & Young, said: ‘Dominic and Tim had an idea but were faced with many tough obstacles to make their dream a reality. However, they had the tenacity, the determination and the perseverance and now have a successful national business with plans to roll out a European model. They understand their
market and have created a completely new payment method with a whole new national distribution chain behind it.’

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Enquiries:
PayPoint Press Office
01707 600356
peterbrooker@paypoint.co.uk

Tom Nutt / Charlotte Pusey
The Communication Group
020 7630 1411
paypoint@thecommunicationgroup.co.uk

Notes to Editors
PayPoint is the leading cash and internet payments company in the UK, with operations also in Ireland and Romania. It handles nearly £9 billion from over 540 million transactions annually for more than 6,000 clients and merchants. The company operates several businesses:

• The PayPoint branded retail network numbers over 22,000 terminals located in local shops (including Co-op, Spar, McColls, Costcutter, Sainsburys Local, One Stop, Londis and thousands of independents) in all parts of the UK and
Ireland. Our terminals process gas and electricity meter prepayments, cash bill payments, mobile phone top-ups, transport tickets, BBC TV licences and a wide variety of other payment types for most leading utilities, telecommunications suppliers and many consumer service companies;

• An ATM network which has over 2,300 ‘LINK’ branded machines across the UK, typically in convenience stores;

• PayPoint.net, an internet payment service provider, delivers secure online credit and debit card payments for over 5,000 web merchants, linking into all major UK acquiring banks;

• Pay Store SRL, trading as PayPoint Romania, a mobile top-up operator with over 5,700 outlets equipped with electronic terminals. A bill payment service has been added to increase the breadth of PayPoint’s offering in Romania, emulating the UK branded retail network; and

• Collect+, a joint venture with Home Delivery Network Limited, provides a parcel collection and drop off service at its retailers.

PayPoint floated on the London Stock Exchange in September 2004 and the company’s market capitalisation at 13 August 2009 was £362 million.