Bold changes at Bartercard

BPS Technology, the parent company of Bartercard, is undergoing a reorganisation, acquiring a digital agency in Australia and renaming itself IncentiaPay in order to focus on the fastest-growing arms of its business. 

The changes will not impact on the Bartercard divisions in New Zealand or Australia, which will continue “business as usual”, says Bartercard chief executive, John Scott (pictured). 

“However, these moves do allow for our parent company to expand and diversify into new digital payment areas, which, as previously indicated, are expected to be a strong growth sector for the business.” 

The changes are set to be approved at an Extraordinary General Meeting in Queensland on Thursday, 5 April. They include the acquisition of Sydney-based Gruden Group – a listed digital marketing and transactional payment company. Under the terms, BPS has agreed to provide consideration of $8 million, comprised of 27.68 million BPS shares and $250,000 cash, to Gruden. 

BPS says benefits of the acquisition are access to customers including Oporto, Red Rooster and Starbucks, further penetration of the fast food and hospitality sectors, and tapping into cost synergies with other parts of its business.

At the same time, the company has put in place a new management team and Board and plans to change its name to IncentiaPay to better reflect its core business activities.

“BPS remains a strong underlying business,” says its new CEO Iain Dunstan. “We are pursuing a restructuring and turnaround plan and will focus on re-positioning BPS for growth to drive revenue and profitability.”

As part of its ongoing diversification into new payment and rewards platforms, BPS previously bought Entertainment Publications, which publishes the Entertainment Books, and has an association with Asian mobile phone payment platform Alipay which is allowing it to make inroads into the Chinese tourist market. 

“It’s an exciting time to be part of the company expansion,” says Scott who was appointed trans-Tasman CEO for Bartercard in December, after running the New Zealand operation for five years. 

“It was logical to combine the New Zealand and Australian operation into one business unit and part of my role is to develop a shared service model to support the requirements of the enlarged business. At the same time, I am ensuring we continue to drive our culture of leadership and continuous improvement underpinned by technological innovation.”