Retail Decisions to Double From Here

First UK Gift Card Client

RNS Number:2079W
Retail Decisions PLC
28 December 2005

Date: For immediate release, Tuesday 27th December 2005



Contacts: Carl Clump, Chief Executive
Richard Amos, Finance Director
Retail Decisions plc
Tel: 01483 728 700
Website: www.redplc.com


Alistair Mackinnon-Musson
Philip Dennis
Hudson Sandler
Tel: 020 7796 4133
Email: red@hspr.co.uk



Retail Decisions plc

First UK Gift Card Client


Retail Decisions ("ReD"), the card issuer and a world leader in card fraud
prevention and payment processing, announces it has gained Harvey World Travel
("HWT"), a leading Australian travel company, as its first UK gift card client.

This first UK customer win comes only weeks after ReD acquired E Com Industries,
Australia's largest electronic gift card operator. As stated at the time of the
acquisition, it is ReD's aim to migrate E Com's gift card offer across other ReD
regions, particularly the UK and USA. This is the first step in executing this
strategy.

HWT will be the first company to launch a gift card into the UK travel market.
HWT has for a number of years been successfully operating a gift card offer
through E Com in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. In Australia alone,
HWT has rapidly grown its gift card sales to AUD$6m in 2 years.

HWT is an international travel group listed on the Australian Stock Exchange,
with turnover of AUD$1.7bn in 2005. The group has over 500 outlets across
Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and the UK.

Gift cards are pre-paid cards that allow a pre-determined amount of money to be
loaded onto a card by the purchaser that can then be used by the recipient to
make one or multiple purchases.

Gift cards enable merchants to provide a more modern consumer offer over paper
based vouchers, with better merchandising and branding opportunities, including
loyalty schemes. When combined with ReD's world leading fraud prevention and
payment processing services, ReD's gift card service also offers significant
cost savings in security and administration.

The market for stored value cards is growing rapidly. Industry research shows
that in the US, an estimated US$63 billion was spent on buying stored value
cards in 2004, which is expected to grow to US$257 billion by 2009. It is also
anticipated that around 10% of US gift sales in the 2005 Holiday Season will be
on buying gift cards (source: Giftex). The UK and European market is estimated
to be around five years behind that of the US but is expected to grow by around
30-35% annually over the next five years.

Over the last three years E Com has been highly successful in the pre-paid gift
card market in Australia and has launched more than 30 gift card schemes for
blue chip retailers such as Coles Myer and Woolworths, Australia's two largest
retailers, Dymocks, a leading Australian book-store, and Crabtree & Evelyn.
Other major travel companies in Australia using E Com's gift card technology
include Flight Centre and Travelscene Amex.

ReD acquired E Com, Australia's largest electronic gift card operator, in
December 2005. This was the second acquisition ReD made in the space of two
months, having acquired Fuelserv in November 2005, a fuel card operator in the
UK and Europe. As a result ReD has card issuing, payment processing and fraud
prevention operations across its international business units.

Commenting, Carl Clump, Chief Executive of ReD, said:

"Gaining Harvey World Travel as our first gift card client in the UK is a clear
demonstration of our ability to support clients in achieving their international
ambitions through our portfolio of card issuing, payment processing and fraud
prevention services. ReD's expertise in fraud prevention and payment processing
combined with our new pre-paid capability gives retailers an exciting,
comprehensive payment solution that will increase their revenue and customer
loyalty whilst reducing their costs and vulnerability to fraud".

Grant Campbell, Head of Finance at HWT, added:

"Harvey World Travel is delighted to announce a market first in the travel
sector with this new service, which will provide an innovative product for our
customers and corporate clients".

"ReD's platform greatly reduces gift card administration and costs, providing us
with a fully integrated web based management interface featuring card issuance
services, an administration centre and real-time reporting".


- ENDS -


Notes to Editors:


ABOUT ReD


Retail Decisions (ReD) is a card issuer and a world leader in card fraud
prevention and payment processing.

ReD is international - based in the UK, US, Australia and South Africa with
representation in Japan and South America - and has over 17 years experience in
the fraud prevention market.

ReD is a niche supplier to the payments industry worldwide and is a recognised
industry leader with a blue-chip international client base. ReD's customers
come from the telecommunications, retail, travel, petroleum, banking and the
broader e-commerce sectors.

ReD's international blue-chip clients include: Wal-Mart, Macy's, Bloomingdale's,
Tesco, Texaco, Shell, Asda, Comet, Travelocity, T-Mobile and Virgin Mobile.

ReD has Fuel Card Operations in Australia, the UK and Europe.

In Australia, ReD's Fuel Card operation is the largest multi-branded card
business in that region. 'Multi-branded' - can be used in more than one brand
of filling station. ReD's cards are accepted at almost all of the 6,500 fuel
stations throughout Australia and at around 8,250 other outlets that provide
services for business drivers.

In the UK and Europe, ReD's fuel card business is the UK's second largest
operator in the independent fuel card and 'bunkering' sector by fuel volume with
over 65,000 cards in issue and around 6,300 live customer accounts. Clients
include DHL, Norfolk Line and P&O Ferry Masters, amongst others.

ReD's Fraud Prevention Operation provides services that maximise the
transactions that can be safely accepted (i.e. maximises profits) while
minimising a client's exposure to fraud. It also dramatically reduces in-house
fraud checking costs. ReD currently protects over 50,000 points of sale
globally.

In December 2005, ReD acquired E Com, Australia's largest Pre-Paid card
operator. Pre-paid cards (also known as stored value cards) are one of the
fastest growing areas in the payments market. Pre-paid cards are those payment
cards where the consumer can spend a pre-determined amount that has previously
been loaded onto the card. Pre-paid cards can be 'single use' or 're-loadable'
and can be designed for use at the outlets of a single retailer or be used at
multiple retailers (e.g. a shopping centre might issue a card that can be used
at each of the stores within its centre).


Examples of Pre-paid cards include:



o gift card schemes - which are replacing traditional gift voucher
schemes

o refund cards - to replace credit notes

o insurance claim cards - which are a convenient way for insurance
companies to re-imburse claimants

o incentive cards - which can be offered by corporates as part of
incentive schemes for staff

o pre-paid fuel cards


Benefits to merchants that adopt pre-paid card schemes are significant. For
example, gift cards enable merchants to provide a more modern consumer offering
than paper based vouchers, with better merchandising and branding opportunities.
They also provide significant operational cost savings around security,
administration and fraud prevention.


This information is provided by RNS
The company news service from the London Stock Exchange
END

MSCEXLFLELBFFBD