Miconex awarded company of the year at the 2021 Incentive Awards

Miconex has been announced as the company of the year at the 2021 Incentive Awards. The awards took place on Wednesday 24^th November at One Moorgate Place in London, and are designed to celebrate excellence within the incentive and reward sector.

The company of the year accolade for Scottish fintech Miconex comes 6 years after they launched the first Town & City Gift Card in Perth in November 2015, and in recognition of the firm’s success in making local gift cards accessible for organisations. Over £850,000 of Town & City Gift Cards have been purchased by public, private and voluntary organisations as incentives and rewards since 2020.

A Christmas 2021 Secret Santa campaign from Miconex is encouraging organisations to think local with their rewards and incentives, whilst giving employees the chance to nominate a deserving colleague to win a £250 Town & City Gift Card. There are now over 70 Town & City Gift Card programmes across the UK and Ireland. Around £4.6 million is predicted to be injected into communities in 2021 through sales of Town & City Gift Cards.

In November 2021, Miconex began the rollout of its new digital gifting product for towns and cities under its new global Love Local brand, alongside EML Payments Limited (ASX: EML). Digital gift cards work though the Mastercard network and digital wallet services, enabling places to adapt to the trend for digital gifting products and offer omnichannel redemption by combining a physical and digital gift card. New omnichannel Town & City Gift Card programmes launch in Bradford, Worthing and Wimbledon in November.

Miconex’s 2021 partnership with the Scottish Government and Scotland’s Towns Partnership has given every region in Scotland the opportunity to launch its own ScotlandLoves Local Gift Card. The combination of 17 existing Scottish Town & City Gift Card programmes, with new regional Scotland Loves Local Gift Cards, gives organisations unparalleled access to local gift card schemes in Scotland.

Miconex’s digital loyalty scheme for towns and cities, Mi Rewards, launched in 2018, and reached a milestone of £1 million in sales in 2021, with over 47,000 transactions. The fintech also enjoyed rapid expansion across North America in 2021, with new Downtown Gift Card programmes in Canada and the USA, including a $3.7 million Canada’s Food Island Gift Card project.

Colin Munro, managing director of Miconex said: “We started Miconex with a mission to give places a tangible means to retain spend in their local area. Employee rewards and incentives play a huge role in that for most of our Town & City Gift Card programmes. Instead of giving staff rewards where the benefit leaves the area, organisations are realising that by choosing local gift cards, they can have a positive effect on the area where their business is located, and where their staff live. In doing so, they contribute to the economic recovery of the town or city, making it an attractive place to live and work.

“Employee interest in supporting local isn’t waning either. The GCVA found that 34.4% of consumers buying gift cards in September 2021 did so to support local businesses. This is the highest level since May 2020.

“Thanks to the commitment of our places, our team and our partners, we have come a long way in 6 years and are incredibly proud to receive the company of the year award during the prestigious Incentive Awards.”

It is the 6^th year for the Incentive Awards. Founder Wendy Carter said the awards give operators a platform to showcase their work within the industry:

“Our 2021 awards were our best yet, with a welcome return to a live event and an opportunity to celebrate the significant achievements across the incentive and reward industry. Our judging panel of experts are leaders in their field and had a difficult job in selecting the 16 winners on the night. After an extraordinary year though, Miconex were extremely worthy winners of the company of the year award.”