Universe Group signs deal to offer NetPay's onboarding solutions

Point-of-sale, payment and online loyalty systems supplier Universe Group has signed an agreement with NetPay Merchant Services to offer their acquiring and onboarding solutions to its own retail clients, it announced on Wednesday.

The AIM-traded firm said that, through its subsidiary HTEC, Universe already provided payment devices for both indoors and outside, as well as payment processing solutions.

Increasing consumer conversion from cash to card was now driving more widespread adoption of merchant services and through the new agreement, the group said it would be able to offer clients competitive transaction processing rates via NetPay's ‘First Data’ merchant application and fast onboarding, thus making it a ‘one-stop shop’ for all payment transactions.

In addition, the combined offering would give retailers access to further real-time payment related analytics, allowing them to make more informed decisions.

The first clients were expected to be on-boarded in May.

“This agreement complements and broadens our existing payment services, allowing us to be the single payment counterparty for our retailers,” said Universe chief executive Jeremy Lewis.

“We have been impressed with NetPay's platform which ensures quick and easy on-boarding and access to competitive payment processing fee rates, which are vital to our retailers and are important extensions to our other payment, EPOS and loyalty offerings.”

Carl Churchill, co-founder and chief executive of NetPay, said HTEC had an “impressive product offering” and material market share in the convenience and fuel forecourt markets, which made it an “ideal partner” for his firm in the space.

“Both companies share the same client service ethos and our joint offering now means that together we can meet the payment needs of retailers of all sizes across the sector,” Churchill explained.