Author: Mark Fletcher

A news story on the ABC website today has some unfortunate misinformation attributed to the Australian Newsagents’ Federation.

Around 3,500 newsagents across the nation can no longer process bill payments, electronic mobile phone recharge PINs, and the Bill Express-owned Bopo pre-paid credit cards.

The ANF says a replacement system is yet to be found.

Chief executive Don MacAskill says some family-operated newsagencies will struggle

“There is no doubt that this is going to have serious ramifications on newsagents’ business,” he said.

Mr MacAskill says newsagents have no choice but to continue paying around $500 a month for computer software made redundant by the demise of Bill Express.

Many newsagents can process mobile phone top up and sell other electronic voucher product.

When the ANF says a replacement is yet to be found, it means that a replacement from which the ANF can profit is yet to be found.  The ANF made at least $200,000 a year from Bill Express.

In any statement about Bill Express, the ANF needs to disclose that it was a commercial partner of Bill Express and for a considerable fee it promoted Bill Express to newsagents.  The ANF is right to say “this is going to have serious ramifications”.

The ANF ought to know that newsagents have been receiving legal advice which contradicts its statement regarding the lease of the Bill Express equipment.

The ANZ Bank is said to be shipping thousands of terminals to newsagents and other retailers in the wake of shutdown of the Bill Express network today. This is a late move by the bank which has watched as various players have chipped away at their merchant services footprint across the Bill Express network. I’m told the new terminals will start arriving today and and that the bank has waived the usual monthly fee for three months.

As announced to the ASX late yesterday, the ANZ has an interest in 13.2% of shares in Bill Express.

Meanwhile, OnQ, 37.62% shareholder in Bill Express has announced that it will make a statement to the market about its future today. I’d expect it to follow in the footsteps of Bill Express.

The other public company to watch is ETT. Bill Express owns 43.44% of shares in this business which is currently voluntarily suspended from trading.

The phones have rung hot since around 11am today when it became clear that Bill Express was starting to implode.  Newsagents suppliers and media outlets wanted to talk about what happened to Bill Express and what the next steps might be.  There are several parties I really feel for as a result of the shutdown of the Bill Express / Dialtime network today:

• Suppliers relying on the network for income.  Some of the phonecard companies and other electronic voucher products relied in the Bill Express / Dialtime network for significant revenue.  To have cashflow this cut off immediately will hurt until they make alternative retail network arrangements.
• Newsagents yet to make other arrangements.  Despite the warnings, more than 2,500 newsagents do not not have alternative arrangements in place.  This will cost between 5% and 15% of revenue depending on the business and will take several weeks to fully replace with alternative arrangements.
• Consumers who have relied in Bill Express / Dialtime outlets for mobile phone top up, convenient bill payment or even BOPO visa recharge are left hanging.  In rural areas this will, hit hard.

There is no doubt Bill Express and relates entities  OnQ and ETT will be in the news for a while to come as their future is finally resolved.  In the meantime, many small businesses and consumers will be affected in personal ways, beyond the shareholder and major supplier losses which will dominate the news stories.  The nature of the Bill Express business is such that there will be many personal stories emerge over the coming weeks.  These are stories I’d like to hear.

Given the news from Bill Express today, we have been swamped with calls about alternatives. To help newsagents navigate the eziPass option I have prepared the information below.

EZIPASS, A BILL EXPRESS ALTERNATIVE. Newsagents looking for an alternative to Bill Express are encouraged to consider eziPass. Using eziPass, newsagents can easily sell: Visa Prepaid (BOPO alternative), mobile phone recharge, phonecards, magazine subscriptions, NSW fishing licences, CityLink top up and tourism tickets. eziPass does not currently offer a Bill Payment alternative nor does it offer Optus or Vodafone recharge.

MORE THAN 700 NEWSAGENTS USE EZIPASS. Just eight months old, more than 700 newsagents have signed up with eziPass.

HOW EZIPASS WORKS. eziPass is software which runs on any Windows based computer connected to the Internet and with a thermal receipt printer attached. If a customer asks for, say, a Telstra $30 recharge, you select this from a menu, confirm that this is the product you want and the voucher is printed. As the name says, easy! Because eziPass is PC based, you can run this on as many computers as you wish.

EZIPASS IS FREE. eziPass is free for all newsagents. Tower Systems provides telephone support for free as well.

HOW TO SIGN UP FOR EZIPASS. Go to www.ezipass.com.au and click on retailer sign up. Three are three forms to complete:

1. Complete the eziPass sign up form and fax this to 03 9524 8099.
2. Complete the SCX Visa Prepaid Signup Pack and fax this to 1300 650 843.
3. Complete the Access phonecards Signup Form and fax this to 07 5526 9737.
4. Email support@towersystems.com.au and when you have submitted these forms – we will track your applications with each of the companies for you. Please include your business name and contact number in the email.

WHAT HAPPENS ONCE YOU SIGN UP FOR EZIPASS. The various forms are processed and we send you a CD by Express Post. Under separate cover, for security reasons, we send you your password. You can start using eziPass once the three suppliers have processed your applications. This could take up to two weeks. However, we are working with each to fast track applications and get you running ASAP.

RECOMMENDED EFTPOS ARRANGEMENTS. For Eftpos facilities we recommend are those from St.George/Bank SA. Call 1300 768 975, tell them you are a Tower newsagent. If they say you need to be an ANF member, please let me know on 0418 321 338. You do not need to be an ANF member. They may try and sign up for mobile recharge. We recommend against this as it probably involved a long term contract through ePay.

AUSSIE PHONE CARDS – 30% COMMISSION FOR EZIPASS NEWSAGENTS.We have negotiated a 30% commission on Aussie phonecards for eziPass newsagents – this is 50% more than commission on other phonecards. Aussie offers good quality lines and no surcharges. Some cards, for example, have a charge per day regardless of whether you call.

EZIPASS CONTACTS: Technical support: 03 9524 8000 or by email at support@towersystems.com.au. For other queries please call Mark Fletcher on 0418 321 338 or Andrew Halpern 03 9524 8040.

Bill Express announced to the ASX at 1:41pm today that the Directors have resolved to appoint administrators to the company today.

Of the 3,600 newsagents using Bill Express I’d estimate than at least 2,500 are as of today without mobile phone recharge, phonecards and other products and services offered by Bill Express. Most of these newsagents continue to have $495 a month (plus GST) taken from their account by a company associated with Bill Express.

The tragedy is that newsagents stumped up close to $90 million in capital for Bill Express in the form of leases for equipment. It is these leases for now useless equipment, which unlocked the millions for the company, which newsagents have been left with. The wash up will make interesting reading but do little to help newsagents who will carry a huge financial burden.

The ANF, the newsagent’s own national association, robustly promoted Bill Express to newsagents and profited handsomely from this arrangement. The association has all but washed its hands of Bill Express as soon as revenue from the company dried up. I’d expect newsagents to quit the ANF over this.

Bill Express has just advised all retailers to suspend selling products or accepting Bill Payment through its facilities. here is the text of the announcement:

Bill Express advises that due to its current circumstances we request that you suspend vending all prepaid products, processing any bill payment transactions or taking any bopo card top-ups until further notice.

I have been told that Bill Express appointed an Administrator last night and that they have eight weeks to find a buyer for the business.  While I have been unable to confirm this report, I note that Bill Express has announced to the ASX this morning that the Al Othman group has withdrawn its recapitalisation proposal.  This was the only white knight at the Bill Express table.  I expect that this afternoon’s announcement will be regarding Administration.