The launch of the Health Lottery helped to stem the decline in top-up revenues and propel PayPoint towards growth of 8%.

PayPoint has reported a decline in mobile phone top-ups each year since 2008, as consumers increasingly switch to monthly contracts. While mobile top-ups continued to fall in the three months to 25 December, transactions for the Health Lottery, which uses the same technology, meant the overall number of top-ups rose slightly over the period.

In total PayPoint processed 183 million transactions in the three months to 25 December, up 13% on the same period last year. Net revenues were up 8% to £24.3m.

The majority of growth came from its core bill payments market, with strong growth also shown in its smaller retail services division from transaction fees from ATMs, card machine rentals and commission from Collect+.

“Overall trading for the period to 25 December was in line with market expectations, taking seasonality of trading into account, with group net revenues up 8% over the same period last year,” said chief executive Dominic Taylor.

The volume of parcels delivered through Collect+ trebled from last year to 1.2 million, with a peak of 125,000 transactions at Christmas. Retailers allowing parcels to be collected or sent from their sites now number 4,600.

PayByPhone transactions were up 22% on last year to 4.4 million. Parking authority delays in tendering, contracting and implementation had restricted growth, but implementations in San Francisco and three London boroughs commenced in the period, PayPoint said.

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