Rewards scheme on move

Promoters of a newly expanded customer loyalty programme say they hope to sell the concept's technology overseas, and have set up offices in Sydney and San Francisco.

Kachingo!, run by Global Online Promotions, this week announced it had signed up BP, KFC and the Woolworths supermarket group (including Price Chopper and Big Fresh) to the scheme, which rewards shoppers with instant prizes and cash draw tickets.

Kachingo! was launched last December at Super Liquor stores and the chain's general manager, John Sutherland said yesterday the boost in sales since then - estimated at 7 per cent - had "certainly made it worthwhile".

Global Online is majority owned by Eric Watson's Cullen Investments and Wellington merchant banker Lloyd Morrison's Morrison & Co.

Listed company Strathmore and the management of Global Online also have a stake in the company.

About $10 million has been spent in developing the concept over the past four years and the company has patents on the technology, which prints instant prize vouchers and lottery tickets through retailers' tills.

Global Online managing director Mary Vance said the company had set up the overseas offices with the aim of selling the concept into those markets.