PayPoint has revealed growth across its retailer estate, driven by continued use of its access to cash service and new partnerships.

The news comes after the firm published its latest trading update, for the full year ending 31 March. The statement explained how its continued retailer estate growth has been bolstered by the roll out of Counter Cash, which launched last February.

According to the statement, the service is now live in 5,680 sites, with 1,930 sites transacting regularly in the year. Meanwhile, the firm confirmed it has “delivered excellent volumes” through Collect+. “This has been driven by our strength in clothing/fashion categories and the growth in print-in-store transactions by the in-store experience investments made in Zebra label printers over the past two years,” it said.

PayPoint also revealed it had ended the year with its “strongest ever sales performance” and “largely full-strength” sales team across Handepay.

Across payments and banking, net revenue has also grown, delivered by progress in digital transactions and a resilient energy sector performance, comprising cash and digital bill payments and £246m of energy bill support scheme vouchers redeemed across the network.

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In February, PayPoint announced the completion of its takeover of Appreciate Group, giving partnered stores access to new voucher sales opportunities. The latest update revealed “trading has been in line with expectations across all channels”, but “as expected, a small operating loss was incurred in March 2023, before taking into account any acquisition related amortization and financing costs. It added: “This is due to the seasonal nature of the business where profit is primarily generated in Q3 of the financial year.”

Overall, PayPoint is expected to achieve a group net revenue of around £125m.

Chief executive, Nick Wiles, said: “This has been another positive year for the PayPoint Group where net revenue growth has accelerated across all three of our business divisions. We were also delighted to complete the acquisition of Appreciate Group on 28 February 2023, opening up further revenue opportunities and expanding our capabilities in the gifting, rewards and prepaid savings markets.

“We are entering the new financial year in a materially enhanced position across the group: a full-strength sales team delivering high conversion rates; healthy pipelines for our FMCG and integrated payments propositions; a business-wide partnership philosophy yielding further revenue opportunities; and a dynamic platform of innovative technology and solutions enabling integrated payments and commerce for our extensive base of clients, retailer partners and SMEs.”

He added: “We will continue to invest in growth areas across the group in the coming year, particularly in card processing, Open Banking, digital payments and the Appreciate Group, to enhance our capabilities, unlock opportunities and accelerate our growth. All of this underlines our confidence in delivering further progress in the new financial year, with the acquisition of Appreciate Group, delivering as indicated at the time of acquisition, an earnings enhancement in our first full year of ownership.”

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