Originally founded by former Everton FC owner Peter Johnson as a Christmas savings and hampers club, Appreciate is now a multi-faceted business with a £100m-plus turnover. Tony McDonough reports
Liverpool-based Christmas savings, vouchers and corporate rewards business Appreciate Group has secured a £15m revolving credit facility with Santander.
Formerly known as Park Group, Appreciate began life as a Christmas savings and hampers club based in a Birkenhead butchers shop owned by the family of the business founder, Peter Johnson. Mr Johnson later become the owner of both Tranmere Rovers and Everton football clubs.
Last year the AIM-listed company changed its name to Appreciate Group and moved its headquarters, and the bulk of its 270 staff, from its long-standing Birkenhead home, to the 20 Chapel Street office complex in Liverpool city centre.
Appreciate still offers the hampers and the Christmas savings, helping more than 430,000 families put money aside for the festive period. But is now also a multi-faceted financial services business, offering pre-paid gift vouchers, pre-paid cards and corporate incentives.
The new credit facility with Santander was planned prior to the COVID-19 crisis and completes the bank financing exercise its started in April. The new facility provides committed funding of £15m for a five-year term on an unsecured basis, with an option to extend the facility by a further £10m.
This is the first time Appreciate group has utilised bank financing. Tim Clancy, chief financial officer, said: “This new facility provides Appreciate Group with additional financial flexibility to deliver our strategy of driving sales of our higher margin products and investing in accelerating our shift to digital.”
In an interview with LBN earlier this year, Appreciate chief executive Ian O’Doherty, a former executive with US credit card giant MBNA, talked about the company’s move into offering more digital products.
“The move to digital payments, particularly using mobile phones, is a major growth area for the business,” he explained: “Traditionally gift vouchers would be paper and then moved on to gift cards where money was loaded into the card.
“Now we can deliver a gift card straight to someone’s phone and that has been a really significant development for us. People can personalise it with a message, a picture or even a video.”
Christmas hampers remain an important, but relatively small, part of the £100m-plus Appreciate business, and account for around 2% of total revenues. The bulk of income comes from savings, vouchers and corporate rewards.
Andrew Mulliner, a relationship director at Santander, added: “As consumers increasingly look for new ways to celebrate special occasions and say thank you remotely, and with growing demand from corporate customers looking for more creative ways to engage with both staff and customers, there is a real opportunity for Appreciate Group to grow.”
Appreciate Group was provided with financing advice by KPMG Debt Advisory (Nick Dodd / Meredith Casey) and legal advice by Addleshaw Goddard (Martin O’Shea / Elizabeth Wareing).