I feel that I ought to write to you to correct some factual inaccuracies that were contained in the 'Turn of the cards' article that formed part of your October Mall Income Generation feature.

As the clear market leader in the provision of both gift voucher and gift card services to the UK shopping centre industry, we at Flex-e-vouchers welcome commentary and debate regarding the development of our sector. However, the 'Turn of the cards' article was misleading in a number of important areas.

Firstly, you stated that gift cards are still not widely acknowledged within the shopping centre industry. This is simply untrue. Flex-e-vouchers operate gift card schemes for 49 UK shopping centres, including many of the largest and most prominent malls in the country. We operate gift card schemes for most of the major owners in the industry, including Capital Shopping Centres, PruPIM, Land Securities, The Mall, Henderson and Grosvenor, with further scheme launches for prominent owners due imminently.

The second significant error in the article relates to the introduction of gift cards into Europe. The first launch of a MasterCard Maestro gift card scheme in Europe was conducted by Flex-e-vouchers at Bullring in November 2005. We followed this by implementing our gift card scheme at Buchanan Galleries in early December 2005. We continue to operate these schemes successfully to this day. The 'Turn of the cards' article implies that the concept of gift cards was brought to the UK in October 2006, when in fact it was Flex-e-vouchers who pioneered the concept in the UK in 2005.

Finally, the 'Turn of the cards' article states that gift card purchasers' names and addresses are collected as 'an added bonus'. In fact, this is required in order to demonstrate robust compliance with anti-money laundering and know-your-client legislation.

The real added value for shopping centres is delivered by Flex-e-vouchers' proprietary technology platform comprising: a unique point of sale system; administration tools; comprehensive financial reconciliation services; and integrated features such as the use of gift cards for popular customer services such as wedding lists and Christmas savings clubs.

As many of your readers will be aware, Flex-e-vouchers has dominated the provision of paper-based gift voucher schemes to the UK shopping centre industry for some years. This means that we are ideally placed to comment upon the transition from paper to plastic in the industry.

Flex-e-vouchers now operate more gift card schemes than gift voucher schemes - 49 gift card schemes versus 23 gift voucher schemes at UK shopping centres. It seems that the 'Turn of the cards' has indeed arrived, and Flex-e-vouchers are once again leading the way in the industry.

Tony Kerr, Managing Director, Flex-e-vouchers Limited

Flame Television appeals to readers for their assistance

Do you have any CCTV footage of idiotic criminals caught in the act of perpetrating a ridiculous crime? Has someone attempted to burgle your shop and completely messed up? Have you caught an act of ridiculous criminal stupidity on your surveillance cameras?

Channel Five has commissioned Flame Television to make a new ten-part series, Crime Botch, for broadcast in spring 2008. The series uses CCTV clips to reveal the full extent of criminal ineptitude - it will be light-hearted and informative.

The team are looking for examples of CCTV footage of bumbling British criminals which we're hoping your readership can help us with. We'll pay cash for good examples and finder's fees for people who can help us get hold of the very best clips.

From all across the country, we've been hearing so many stories of criminals spectacularly botching up their sorry attempts to break the law that we've decided to make a TV series about them.

It's a light hearted look at crimes that go wrong and shamelessly pokes a bit of fun at the expense of people who'd otherwise be making our lives hell.

The bigger the bungle, the smaller the brains, and to help us prove that, we're asking for anyone who has amusing 'caught in the act' examples of criminal stupidity to send their tapes in to us.

If you have some CCTV footage that you think we should see, drop us a line on 020 7713 6868 or email james@flametv.co.uk or samshepherd@flametv.co.uk.James Hodges

Researcher, Flame TV

Printer friendly version

Email this article to a friend