Shares soar as i-design gets foot in US market with Cardtronics

SHARES in i-design, the Fife-based business that pioneered turning the cash machine into a marketing tool, yesterday surged as much as 36 per cent, after it said it had signed its first US contract.

The Aim-listed business, which has its headquarters in Newport-on-Tay, has struck a "major" deal with Cardtronics, the American ATM network operator, which manages some 33,700 machines globally. The value of the multi-year contract was not disclosed.

The agreement follows a successful pilot, and marks i-design's foray into the vast US market.

Ana Stewart, the chief executive of i-design, who founded the firm in 1991, said: "This is a significant new contract win: it both establishes our presence in the US marketplace – the world's largest – and validates the flexibility and scope of our platform-independent (advertising] solution.

"We're very excited to be working with such a prominent global network owner."

Cardtronics, based in Houston, Texas, is the world's largest non-bank owner of ATMs. It has machines in every major market in the US, as well as more than 2,700 throughout the UK and 2,800 in Mexico.

The agreement with the Scots firm covers some 3,000 ATMs, 2,200 in the States and the remainder in the UK, managed by Cardtronics' British subsidiary, Bank Machine.

Under the terms of the deal, i-design has secured exclusive rights to sell advertising space on behalf of Cardtronics, which will use the company's third-party advertising solution, atmAd. The two companies will share the advertising revenue.

The move has taken i-design's estate of ATMs available for third party advertisers to some 8,600.

The news cheered the market, and shares in i-design, which floated on Aim in 1997, surged as much as 35.7 per cent. They closed the day up 21.4 per cent at 17p.

Stewart said i-design would continue its expansion drive both in the UK and internationally.

Cash machines at Nationwide branches and Tesco stores use i-design's software, which allows ATM network owners to run third-party advertising as well as their own internal marketing campaigns.

The group, which had 33 staff at the end of its last financial year, and is chaired by Jim Faulds, the advertising industry veteran, also has a small presence in Greece.

I-design spent much of the 1990s helping banks improve the appearance and ease-of-use of ATMs, and some one billion transactions carried out in the UK annually now incorporate graphical content generated by the company.