PayPoint has posted resilient growth across its retail-facing divisions, with notable gains in e-commerce and steady momentum in its shopping services.
However, its overall pre-tax profit dropped sharply by 45.4 per cent to £26.3 million in the year to 31 March 2025, after accounting for £41.7 million in adjusting items including legal costs, a claim settlement, and amortisation of acquired assets.
The group's underlying performance remained strong, with EBITDA rising 10.7 per cent year-on-year to £90 million and underlying profit before tax increasing by 10.2 per cent to £68 million. However, the one-off costs dragged statutory profit down from £48.2 million to £26.3 million.
Shopping division net revenue rose 1.2 per cent to £65.2 million, bolstered by a 10.7 per cent rise in service fees to £21.8 million, driven by growth in PayPoint One and PayPoint Mini sites, now totalling 20,275. The UK retail network expanded to over 30,700 locations, with 70 per cent in the independent sector.
Despite this, card payments net revenue slipped 0.9 per cent to £32.4 million, with consumer spending patterns dampened in the second half. Card transaction values also declined by 4.2 per cent to £6.9 billion.
Innovations such as AI-driven merchant tools, a new mobile app, and the Handepay Rewards programme supported merchant retention, with over 3,500 signups and a 7 per cent reduction in churn.
The E-commerce division, meanwhile, stood out with a 39 per cent jump in net revenue to £16.4 million, driven by a record 133.4 million parcel transactions – up 33.3 per cent year-on-year.
PayPoint’s Collect+ network grew from 11,786 to 14,213 sites, buoyed by expansion with InPost and Royal Mail services.
Retail support and outlook
PayPoint rolled out a Store Growth Specialist team this year to provide data-led support visits, aimed at helping convenience retailers unlock more revenue from the PayPoint suite of services. Additionally, its PayPoint Engage platform delivered 18 major brand campaigns, including an award-winning SPAR promotion during Euro 2024.
In the current financial year, PayPoint said the group remains focused on expanding its retail footprint and product adoption, particularly across parcel services, card payments, and community-based banking, as it identified seven building blocks for growth to the end of FY28.
Despite the fall in statutory profits, PayPoint declared a final dividend of 19.6p per share, up slightly from last year. It also announced an enhanced share buyback programme, committing to return at least £30 million annually to shareholders until the end of FY28 – a move underpinned by its strong cash generation and confidence in hitting its £100 million EBITDA target by FY26.
“We have now established new targets for the group for the next three years to the end of FY28, underlining our confidence in the future growth prospects of the business,” Nick Wiles, chief executive of PayPoint Plc, said. These targets included achieving net revenue growth in the range of 5 per cent to 8 per cent per annum across the group; greater automation of processes and delivering a reduction of at least 20 per cent of the issued share capital through the enhanced share buyback programme.
Wiles said the group has had an “encouraging start” to the current financial year in each of its business divisions and have already secured a number of important new contract wins, particularly within the housing sector.
