Colruyt Group, one of Belgium’s largest retail corporations, chooses SEQR

- opens up for mobile payments for e-commerce followed by more than 500 physical stores


Colruyt Group, one of Belgium’s largest retail corporations with an annual revenue of 8 700 MEUR introduces Seamless’ (OMX: SEAM) mobile wallet SEQR. The company’s position and market share with e-commerce and more than 500 physical stores makes Colruyt Group the largest merchant so far to introduce SEQR.  As of this month, the web shops Collishop, Dreamland and Dreambaby will be the first out to offer SEQR as a method of payment via the payment gateway of Ingenico Payment Services (formerly Ogone). Rollout in all physical stores is planned for phase two.

- The fact that a large player such as Colruyt Group chooses SEQR when they take the step to introduce mobile payments is a testimony to the proven added value SEQR has to offer both merchants and consumers, says Peter Fredell, CEO Seamless that provides SEQR.

In Belgium, McDonald’s is already collaborating with Seamless, and SEQR has now been integrated in the Ingenico Payment Services Platform, formerly Ogone, enabling the online payments with SEQR. All web shops that are part of the Colruyt Group will be the first to launch SEQR followed by the physical stores Colruyt, Okay, Bio-Planet, Spar Retail, Dreamland and Dreambaby. The more than 500 stores are available in almost every larger town around Belgium.

- We introduce SEQR as a method of payment as a first step, but the possibilities are obviously much greater. The stores will be able to connect loyalty programs, coupons and targeted offers directly in one app. That it is easy for us to integrate the solution to our checkout system, lower our transaction costs while maintaining our low prices means much added value for our customers, says Michel Van Mello, Division Manager Accounting & Banking, Colruyt Group.

Belgium is the first market where Seamless will route payments for SEQR through SEPA. Regardless of bank, consumers all over the euro area can authorize access to debit their bank account when paying with SEQR. After downloading SEQR, the customer grants SEQR permission to charge the owed sums to his/her bank account via SEPA direct debit.

Colruyt Group conducted their own thorough testing of the mobile payment solution on users. Thanks to Seamless’ own transaction switch, Colruyt Group and all other merchants that introduce SEQR can lower their transaction fees significantly. The positive feedback with regards to speed and ease of use has been a deciding factor in the choice of mobile method of payment.

Seamless recently signed an agreement with Ingenico Payment Services, the leading global digital payment services provider who is in charge of the e-payment gateway of Colruyt Group webshops.

“We are very pleased to integrate SEQR’s innovative new technology into our platform, which already offers more than 150 payment methods,” said Xavier Thiran, Head of Business Development at Ingenico Payment Services. “We thus continue to enrich our agnostic offer and strengthen our positioning as a payment facilitator, enabling merchants like Colruyt Group to deliver a smooth, rapid purchasing experience to their customers, boosting merchant sales performance and conversion ratios.”

For more information:
Cecilia Lago Albright, press contact +46 707 43 13 45, cecilia.albright@seamless.se
Peter Fredell, CEO Seamless, +46 8 564 878 00, peter.fredell@seamless.se
Jan Derom, press contact Colruyt Group, +32 473 92 45 10, jan.derom@colruytgroup.com
Xavier Thiran, Head of Business Development Ingenico Payment Services, +32 476 592 134, xavier.thiran@ingenico.com

About SEQR, by Seamless
SEQR (se•cure) is Sweden’s and Europe’s most used mobile wallet in stores and online. SEQR enables anybody with a smartphone to pay in stores, at restaurants, parking lots and online, transfer money at no charge, connect loyalty programs, store receipts digitally and receive offers and promotions directly through one mobile app. Through the SEQR app, the user simply scans or taps a QR-code/NFC at check-out and approves the purchase by entering a PIN code. Fast, smooth and safe, SEQR’s payment solution enables merchants to lower interchange fees significantly compared to those charged by traditional card companies. SEQR’s unique transaction platform has been developed by Seamless, one of the world’s largest suppliers of payment systems for mobile phones.

Founded in 2001 and active in 30 countries, Seamless handles more than 3, 1 billion transactions annually through 525 000 active sales outlets. 5 200 merchants have chosen SEQR including Sweden’s largest grocery chains, fast food chains and national retailer chains including McDonald’s, Hemköp and Ur&Penn. SEQR was launched in Romania in 2013, in Finland in 2014 and is scheduled to launch in Belgium in 2014. In 2013, SEQR won the Mobile Money Global Award for Best Mobile Money Deployment in Europe. Seamless is traded on Nasdaq OMX Stockholm, under the SEAM ticker. www.seqr.com

About Colruyt Group
Colruyt Group operates in the food and non-food distribution sector in Belgium, France and Luxembourg with about 470 own stores and over 500 affiliated stores. In Belgium this includes Colruyt, OKay, Bio-Planet, Dreamland, Dreambaby and the affiliated stores Spar and Eurospar. In France, in addition to approximately 70 Colruyt stores, there are also affiliated, independent Coccinelle, CocciMarket and Panier Sympa stores. The group is also actively involved in the foodservice market (supplying food products to hospitals, company canteen kitchens, catering businesses) in France (Pro à Pro) and in Belgium (Solucious). The other activities include the sale of fuels (DATS 24), digital print and document management solutions (Symeta) and the production of green energy. The group employs over 27.000 employees and recorded EUR 8,7 billion revenue in 2013/14. Colruyt is listed on NYSE Euronext Brussels (COLR) under ISIN code BE0974256852.

About Ingenico Payment Services
As a leading global digital payment service provider, Ingenico Payment Services provides a seamless response to the complexity of payments, whatever the channel: online, mobile and point-of-sale. Offering innovative e-commerce, multi-channel, financial, and marketing solutions, it helps merchants to manage, collect and secure their payments, prevent fraud and increase their revenues through higher conversions. Ingenico Payment Services is part of the Ingenico Group, the global leader in seamless payment.

This information is such information that Seamless Distribution AB (publ) is required to disclose pursuant to the Swedish Securities Market Act and/or the Swedish Financial Instrument Trading Act. The information was released for publication on September 4th, 2014 at 07.50 am (CET).


Attachments

Press release_Colruyt chooses SEQR_140704_FINAL.pdf