PayPoint's revenues drop due to decline in top-ups

FIGURES RELEASED yesterday by British mobile top-up group PayPoint show a steep decline in revenues for its business in Ireland.

Revenues declined to £24.5 million in the year to the end of March 2009, compared with £29.5 million a year earlier. That's a drop of 17 per cent.

"There's been a significant contraction in top-ups, mainly because of the competition between the mobile networks, and then you have the wider economic conditions," David Walton, PayPoint's commercial director in Ireland, told me.

PayPoint, a British-listed company, entered the Irish market in 2003.

It is thought to have a 5 per cent share of the top-up market, but is a bigger player in bill payments, competing with An Post.

"We have a positive three- to five-year plan and we want to take a larger share of what is still a significant market," Walton said.

That won't include rolling out integrated ticketing for the Rail Procurement Agency.

Sandyford-based Payzone, which was taken private recently after a large debt-for-equity swap with its lenders, pipped PayPoint in the race to be appointed by HP for the roll-out of the long- awaited smart ticketing scheme for Dublin's commuters.