Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

of stores across the country from November 2006.

The deal is an extension of PayPoint's current relationship with Somerfield which consists of providing full service PayPoint terminals in 297

stores across the UK.

Its shares were up 4.3 per cent to 650p, also attributable to a strong set of interims.

The company, which operates a network for cash payments of utility bills and ATMs, attributes its growth to the strategy of offering more services and the range of payments it is possible to make through its network.

Paypoint feels that “investment of new signage and publicity surrounding the TV licensing win have improved consumer-prompted brand awareness to 60 per cent, which is driving an increase in market share in all sectors,” according to David Newlands, the chairman of Paypoint.

He added: “There remains ample opportunity to grow revenue organically in the UK and Ireland by increasing our market share in bill and general payments, mobile top-ups and ATMs.” He also said that the company “was on track to exceed our target of 17,000 terminal locations by the end of this financial year.”