Vouchers help Hull flood victims

Love2reward supplied Hull Community and Voluntary Services (CVS), which works in partnership with Hull Council, with significant orders of Love2shop vouchers after last year's devastating floods.

Due to the exceptional weather conditions last year, Love2reward supplied the local council with the vouchers for use as emergency aid for flood victims. The vouchers enabled affected families to purchase items which were lost in the flood.

Dave Rogers, Chief Officer for Hull CVS said: "Hull CVS worked in partnership with Hull City Council to Administer the Hull Flood Fund, delivering emergency financial assistance to flood victims. We chose to use high street vouchers because they are easy to purchase, to keep secure and to administer and give recipients a choice of where to shop. In particular we used Love2shop vouchers because of the wide range of high street retailers who accept them. This enabled us to meet a wide range of needs, for food, clothing, shoes, furniture, white goods and other needs quickly and easily."

Chris Hartley, Business Development Director for Love2reward, said: "Multi-store gift vouchers are particularly useful for the public sector because they are effectively buying a 'currency'. This is an advantage to cash-conscious councils because gift vouchers do not require an expensive reward mechanism and are infinitely flexible."

"Vouchers can be stored and distributed at a local level for a multitude of purposes, e.g. Long Service & Retirement Awards, Attendance Schemes, Suggestion Schemes, Training Bonuses, Target Incentives, Recognition Schemes, Referral Awards, etc. In addition, as public sector organisations move toward their year end in March, there is pressure to 'use or lose' their budgets; should they choose to buy gift vouchers, which are adaptable and have lengthy expiry dates, their use can be spread-out over the following year. Hull Council's use of our vouchers as emergency aid was a new application to us, but we were pleased to see our vouchers providing immediate relief to families in very distressing circumstances."

NOTES TO EDITORS:

Love2reward is part of Park Retail, which is one of three distinct divisions of Park Group plc ? one of the UK's premier specialist providers of financial services.

Through its Retail Division, the Birkenhead-based business has grown into one of the UK's leading providers of gift vouchers to the high street and corporate reward and incentive markets. This division also operates Park Travel, a full-service and independent travel agency.

Park Group Plc was founded in 1967 as a supplier of Christmas hampers and still provides these via its Park Christmas Savings and Country Christmas Savings brands.

Park Financial Services provide a wide range of sub-prime financial services under various brands.

Chris Houghton is Group Managing Director and Peter Johnson Executive Chairman of a growing business that employs more than 580 staff.

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