With its origins in a Wirral butchers shop, Park Christmas Savings has become the UK’s biggest Christmas savings club and now a £2.5m campaign will look to grow it further. Tony McDonough reports
Just weeks after completing the £83m acquisition of Liverpool-based Appreciate Group, PayPoint has announced the expansion of one of its best-known brands.
First agreed in November 2022 and completed in late February, the deal saw Paypoint, a high street payments specialist, acquire 95% of stock market-listed Appreciate share capital.
Now based at 20 Chapel Street in Liverpool city centre, Appreciate was originally known as Park Group. It began life as a Christmas savings and hampers club in a family butcher in Birkenhead in the 1960. It employs around 270 people.
Founder Peter Johnson became one of Merseyside’s best-known business people. At different points he owned both Everton FC and Tranmere Rovers FC.
Appreciate dropped the hampers business in 2020 but its Park Christmas Savings brand is the UK’s leading Christmas savings club. Around 350,000 families collectively save more than £160m a year with the division.
It helps families manage the cost of Christmas, by offering a range of gift cards and vouchers from some of the biggest high street names via its Love2shop gift card.
Now PayPoint says it aims to grow this even further by utilising its UK network of retailers, usually small newsagents or convenience stores. It wants to create new ‘Super Agents’ who will recruit new Christmas savings customers.
It is teaming up with the Federation of Independent Retailers (the Fed) on the initiative. Retailers who take part in the scheme could earn more than £1,000 a year.
Each store will get access to a support package, including training roadshows, digital and in-store POS, personalised saver communications and a national £2.5m advertising campaign driving awareness of the scheme.
Fed members who are not currently PayPoint retailers can also take advantage of an exclusive bundle deal of PayPoint One, Park Savings and Parcels. It will roll out over this summer ahead of the start of the Christmas 2024 season.
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Nick Wiles, chief executive of PayPoint, said: “We know that Fed members will be perfect partners for Park Christmas Savings, given the important role they play at the heart of their communities across the UK.
“This forms part of our longstanding commitment to add extra value and revenue into the pockets of all PayPoint retailer partners. We’re looking forward to working closely with the Fed to roll this out over the coming months.”