PostNL buys stake in Dutch mobile coupon company

Post NL has invested in a company that distributes discount coupons to consumers via a smartphone application in the Netherlands. The Dutch postal operator said on Friday that it has acquired a minority stake in Scoupy through its door-to-door leaflet distribution subsidiary Netwerk VSP.

Scoupy provides a free smartphone app that gives consumers access to discounts in shops, bars, hotels, restaurants and leisure activities in their local areas.

PostNL said the acquired company was “the leader in the rapidly growing mobile couponing market” in the Netherlands, and that there was growth potential with the number of smartphones in the Netherlands soaring to 9m and expected to increase further over the next few years.

The company said aligning itself with Scoupy was part of Netwerk VSP’s strategy of extending its door-to-door consumer advertising base into the Internet and mobile space.

Yme Pasma, Managing Director of Netwerk VSP, said Scoupy was an “inspiring and enterprising” company.

“By working together with Scoupy we can now offer our customers new options, in addition to our tried and trusted leaflets, for getting consumers to cross the threshold,” said Pasma.

Scoupy

Scoupy was launched in August 2011, and currently has 25 employees. The company says it has had “well over” 125,000 downloads of its app.

The company said teaming up with Netwerk VSP would mean linking up to more coupon providers for more shopping locations.

“The collaboration with Post NL and Netwerk VSP is an important step for Scoupy to connect with more nationwide retail chains, to continue to build success among our users and providers,” says Scoupy’s Managing Director Valentijn Bras.

“The cooperation with Netwerk VSP is a significant step for Scoupy in order to link up with more national retail chains and to build on our success with users and vendors.”

Netwerk VSP, which delivers more than 7bn leaflets door-to-door in the Netherlands each year with a network of 22,000 deliverers, closed down its low-cost addressed mail services at the end of last year after saying they didn’t make money.

The company’s expansion into Internet and mobile communications saw the launch of an online retail direct mail advertising platform, Folders.nl, this time last year.