Agreement Signed With NetPay Merchant Services Ltd

7 March 2018  

AIM: UNG.L

Universe Group plc

("Universe", the "Group" or the "Company")

AGREEMENT SIGNED WITH NETPAY TO FURTHER ENHANCE PAYMENT OFFERING

Universe Group plc (AIM: UNG.L), a leading developer and supplier of point of sale, payment and on-line loyalty systems, announces that it has signed an agreement with NetPay Merchant Services Limited ("NetPay") to offer their acquiring and on-boarding solutions to the Group's retail clients.

Through its subsidiary HTEC, Universe already provides payment devices for both in-doors and outside, as well as payment processing solutions. Increasing consumer conversion from cash to card is now driving more widespread adoption of merchant services and through this agreement, the Group will be able to offer clients competitive transaction processing rates via NetPay's First Data merchant application and fast, efficient on-boarding, thus making it a one-stop shop for all payment transactions.

In addition, the combined offering gives retailers access to further real-time payment related analytics allowing them to make more informed decisions. The first clients are expected to be on-boarded in May.

Jeremy Lewis, Chief Executive of Universe Group plc, commented:

"This agreement complements and broadens our existing payment services, allowing us to be the single payment counterparty for our retailers. 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 have an impressive product offering and material market share in the convenience and fuel forecourt markets making them ideal partners for us in this 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."

For further information:

Universe Group plc T: +44 2380 689 510

Andrew Blazye, Non-Executive Chairman

Jeremy Lewis, Chief Executive

finnCap T: +44 20 7220 0500

Stuart Andrews / Henrik Persson (Corporate Finance)

Richard Chambers (Corporate Broking)

IFC Advisory T: +44 20 3934 6630

Tim Metcalfe

Heather Armstrong

About Universe Group plc:

Universe provides some of the world's leading retailers with point of sale, payment and loyalty solutions. The Group's solutions are based on its own proprietary software and are offered out of the cloud on a software as a service model with its data centres processing over 5 billion transactions every year. For further information, please see www.universe-group.co.uk

About NetPay Merchant Services Limited:

NetPay are an award-winning payment service provider. Offering a range of face to face, online and over the phone payment services they deliver differentiation through their market leading technology, focusing on the functionality 'beyond the transaction'. With service management capability, reporting, insight and analytics NetPay's flagship Revolution platform supports merchants in taking control of their business, make informed decisions and experience value beyond simply the commodity capability of being able to take a card payment. For further information, please see www.netpay.co.uk.