PAYBACK goes international

Warsaw, Munich – After nine successful years in Germany, PAYBACK is going international. The bonus programme is being launched in Poland on 16 September 2009. From that date onwards, customers will be able to collect points with ten of Poland’s largest international and domestic companies, including BP, Real, TP (Poland’s leading telecoms group), Orange and major Internet auction site Allegro. "The launch in Poland, which is the largest and strongest market in Eastern Europe, creates the ideal basis for us to expand our business internationally", explains Alexander Rittweger, the founder of PAYBACK, at a press conference in Warsaw. Over the coming years, Rittweger aims to introduce PAYBACK to a further five to eight markets and he is not ruling out acquisitions either. – and therefore earn the reward of their choice – very quickly. The bonus scheme also helps participating partner companies to reach their customers on a personal level and with relevant offers. Payback has become the largest marketing platform in Germany.

Some of the new Polish partners already operate successful bonus schemes with a total of over five million users, and these users will be able to collect PAYBACK points in future. "Poland is on the borderline between an expanding and saturated market and Loyalty Management will be a valuable marketing tool for large companies that need to stand out from the crowd. Over the next twelve months, we are planning to double the number of partner companies that are involved", says Kai Klippel, Managing Director Business Development and Internationalisation at PAYBACK. Polish customers are ambitious points collectors. The latest market research findings show that 81 percent of the population would like to join a multipartner programme.

In addition to the classic points card, the customers in Poland will also be offered a free PAYBACK card with payment functions. Points will be awarded by BP (the largest private service station chain in Poland), Real hypermarkets, Kolporter (one of the largest kiosk chains in Poland with 900 kiosks) and Allegro, the country’s largest Internet auction site, which has over 5 million users. Consumers will also be able to collect PAYBACK points on calls made with Orange and TP and at Bank Zachodni WBK, Accor Hotels, Mix Electronics stores and the online travel platform fly.pl. PAYBACK Polska, based in Warsaw, is operated by Loyalty Partner Polska, a wholly owned subsidiary of PAYBACK GmbH (Munich).