Unredeemed One4all gift card balance in Ireland hits €197m

GVS Gift Voucher Shop DAC generated €2.3m in interest income during 2024

A Californian firm acquired GVS from shareholders that included State-owned An Post in a €100m deal in 2018. File picture

The company that sells One4All gift cards in Ireland paid out a €30m dividend on Monday of this week from the strong profits recorded by the business in recent years.

Accounts filed by GVS Gift Voucher Shop DAC show that the dividend pay out on November 3 in a post balance sheet event followed the company paying out a dividend of €40m last year.

The new accounts show that pre-tax profits decreased by 41% from €11.35m in 2023 to €6.67m last year as revenues declined by 16% from €32.99m to €27.7m.

The company recorded a post tax profit of €5.77m after incurring a corporation tax charge of €900,060.

The principal activities of the company are the sale of gift cards — both physical and digital — redeemable at merchant locations in Ireland and online, via distribution partners such as An Post, Tesco, and Dealz, the Internet, and its corporate sales department.

The directors state that they are satisfied with the performance of the company “and are confident that sufficient appropriate systems and controls are in place to ensure future turnover and profit growth.” The One4All retailer portfolio has expanded to over 60,000 stores across retail, services and online in Ireland and the UK.

GVS Gift Voucher Shop DAC paid out the combined dividends of €70m to parent firm TSC Ventures DAC.

Separate consolidated accounts for TSC Ventures DAC show that the GVS revenues across Ireland and the UK in 2024 totalled €79.58m. The parent firm recorded pre-tax profits of €31.27m that included €13.98m in finance and similar income.

The GVS business also generates funds from Inactive Balance Charge where a monthly inactive balance charge of €1.45 will be charged after the card has been in issue for 18 months and the charge will continue until the balance on the card is zero.

The accounts for TSC Ventures DAC show that the largest proportion of revenues was €41.34m in ‘other income’ which include card administration fees such as inactive balance charges and issuance fees.

A separate entity owned by TSC Ventures, GVS Prepaid (Europe) Ltd, is responsible for the management and safeguarding of Irish client funds held in One4all gift vouchers.

At the end of 2024, the value of unredeemed balances on One4all gift cards in Ireland was €196.88m which was held in a special client bank account.

The company generated €2.3m in interest income during 2024.

No breakdown in revenues for GVS Gift Voucher Shop DAC is provided. Numbers employed decreased by one to 60 as staff costs declined marginally from €2.99m to €2.98m.

The company's cash funds totalled €21.65m at the end of December 2024.

GVS Gift Voucher Shop DAC, GVS Prepaid (Europe) Limited and TSC Ventures are all ultimately owned by US company Blackhawk Network Holdings.

The California-headquartered fintech acquired GVS from shareholders that included State-owned An Post in a €100m deal in 2018.