Payzone profits soar 47 per cent

Irish e-payments group Payzone has reported a 47 per cent rise in operating profit to €2.9 million in the 12 months to the end of September 2012. Turnover for the period was down 5 per cent from €234.3 million in 2011 to €222.1 million last year.

According to accounts recently filed with the Companies Registration Office, gross profit climbed to €8.5 million up from €7.3 million in the previous year.

Payzone managing director Jim Deignan said the most notable aspect of the business was the continued diversification into new areas of electronic customer payments.

“Traditionally mobile top-ups would have accounted for close to 100 per cent of our turnover, but this has gradually dropped to the point where mobile top-ups now account for around 50 per cent of turnover with the balance coming from new business sources in the public and private sectors.”

Earlier this year Payzone was appointed an approved payment service provider by the Revenue Commissioners for the collection of cash payments of the local property tax.

The company, which processes over 50 million transactions in Ireland annually, has a nationwide network of 11,500 retail points of sale which process a variety of electronic transactions services. It employs close to 100 people in its Sandyford head office.