PayPoint, one of the UK’s best known and most used bill payment networks today reveals the UK’s favourite corner shop as C&M News in Cardiff who have been awarded the accolade of ‘2007 PayPoint Corner Shop of the Year’.

C&M News is owned by Maria and Chris Hole who have been running the family business for the last two years since they bought it, turning an old post office site into a convenience store when the postmaster retired.  However, Maria had worked at the Post Office for 31 years previously, so her local knowledge is important to their customers and she has their trust.  They also make deliveries for the very elderly members of the community and help out where they can. 

Having competed with thousands of other shops all over the UK, C&M News won the overall title against nine other regional short-listed finalists.  Voters stated that the store often went beyond the call of duty to serve their local community.  For example, when one customer was taken ill and admitted to hospital, Chris and Maria continued to check on his progress and ensured that he had everything he needed when he came home.

Mr & Mrs Hole were presented with their award by Sarah Jayne Dunn, who played well known soap character Mandy Hutchinson from Channel 4’s Hollyoaks, who was the face of the campaign.

Maria Hole, owner of the C&M News, Cardiff commented: “We’re really proud to be awarded the title of best in the UK.  It means so much because we know how stiff the competition was.  It makes all the early mornings and long hours worthwhile and we’d like to thank our staff and loyal customers for their support.  We cannot wait to show off the award to all our customers.”

Dominic Taylor, Chief Executive of PayPoint, commented: “Chris and Maria are great ambassadors for the industry and they are truly worthy of this accolade.  There are some 30,000 independent local convenience store retailers in the UK, who employ around 75,000 employees with an annual turnover approaching £3bn.

Corner shops are a national institution and the best shops pride themselves on the variety and quality of products and services, whilst offering the highest standards of customer service.”

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For more information, interviews or images of Sarah Jayne Dunn please contact:

PayPoint Press Office
Sarah Treadwell-Jones / Helen Crossley  
Tel: 020 7553 4111
Sarah.Treadwelljones@mischiefpr.com / Helen.Crossley@mischiefpr.com

Notes to Editor:

PayPoint is the UK’s and Ireland’s leading cash and internet payments company, handling over £4 billion in over 360 million payments annually for over 5,000 clients and merchants. The company operates with several significant payment streams:

• The PayPoint branded retail network numbers over 17,500 terminals located in local shops (including Co-ops, Spar, Costcutter, NISA-Today’s, Londis and thousands of independents) in all parts of the UK and Ireland. Terminals handle cash bill payments, mobile phone top-ups, transport tickets, London Congestion Charges, BBC TV licences and a wide variety of other payment types for all of the leading utilities, telecoms suppliers and many consumer service companies. This network is used by consumers, free of charge, over 7 million times a week. The network has 97.3% population cover on a 1 mile urban or 5 miles rural measure;
• Additional multiple retailer connections into the electronic till systems (EPoS) of 3,000 outlets including BP, Somerfield and Superdrug for mobile top ups and selected payments from the PayPoint range;
• The PayPoint ATM network has 1850 ‘LINK’-branded machines across the UK, also typically in convenience stores. These machines levy a small convenience fee for each withdrawal; and
• PayPoint Internet Payment Services, trading as Metacharge and SECPay, provides secure credit and debit card payments for over 4,000 web merchants linking into all the major UK acquiring banks.

PayPoint floated on the London Stock Exchange in September 2004 and was the Financial Times ‘New Company of the Year’.  The company has a market capitalisation of c. £375 million. In year ended March 2006, revenue was £120 million with profit before tax of £20 million. PayPoint has been awarded the Queen’s Award for Enterprise and is widely recognised for its leadership in prepayment systems, smart technology and consumer service.