Results from the latest BRMB Omnibus survey have revealed that brand awareness of PayPoint has significantly increased among consumers. When prompted, 70% said they had heard of PayPoint, up 10% from the previous survey in October 2006 and nearly doubling since October 2005.  PayPoint maintains its clear lead over any other payment network and is still the only credible alternative to the Post Office for the convenient payment of bills and other services.

In-store signage remains the main reason why consumers recognise the brand, with 51% seeing the PayPoint sign in local stores compared to 15% who recognised PayPoint through broadcast campaigns, 14% who named seeing it on household bills and 3.4% from press advertising.

Just over 1 in 5 of the consumers when questioned named and had used PayPoint as the place to pay bills over the counter whereas only 3% could name or had used the nearest competitor.

Dominic Taylor, PayPoint’s Chief Executive commented: “We’re very happy with the BMRB Omnibus results. They illustrate how consumer awareness has continued to accelerate over the last 6 months and how PayPoint is becoming more of a household name across the UK, while our closest competitors are not enjoying the same improvements.

He continued: “We are always committed to extending and improving the PayPoint service in order to drive additional footfall into PayPoint outlets. We would like to thank our retailers for their continued support.” 

                                                                        - Ends -

Enquiries:
PayPoint Press Office
Helen Crossley and Kate Simpson
020 7553 4111
helen.crossley@mischiefpr.com / kate.simpson@mischiefpr.com

Notes to Editor:
PayPoint is the UK’s and Ireland’s leading cash and internet payments company, handling over £5 billion in 414 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 terminal outlets  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 over 3,850 outlets including BP, Somerfield and Superdrug for mobile top ups and selected payments from the PayPoint range;
• The PayPoint ATM network has over 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 over £450 million. In year ended March 2007, revenue was £157 million with profit before tax of £27 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.