Blackhawk Network Programs Win Top Honors at Fifth Annual Paybefore Awards

PLEASANTON, Calif., May 2, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- Blackhawk Network, a leading provider of prepaid and financial payments products for consumers and businesses, today announced that two of the company's leading programs won top honors at the Paybefore Awards held on March 7, 2011. The Kroger One Stop Card Shop Holiday Mega Event was named Best in Category in the Best Third-Party Prepaid Product Retailer category. Blackhawk Network's PayPower was named a finalist in the Best General Purpose Reloadable Program: Online Sales Channel category.

"Paybefore Awards were created to celebrate the innovators in our industry who are using prepaid to transform payments with ever-more efficient and accessible products," said Loraine DeBonis, Paybefore editor-in-chief and chair of the judging panel. "Our industry is growing rapidly because of companies like Blackhawk Network, who continually improve their products and services or create new ones, and we are proud to recognize Blackhawk's contributions to advancing the prepaid industry."

The Kroger One Stop Card Shop Holiday Mega Event was a highly successful holiday promotion for Gift Card Mall prepaid gift cards that took place in all of Kroger's 2,500 stores. The Mega Event offered instant savings of $10 off with the purchase of a $100 gift card, and resulted in a remarkable average increase in gift card sales that exceeded 300 percent.

PayPower is a Visa-branded reloadable prepaid debit card that does not require a credit check or bank account. PayPower has no additional fees for Customer Service, Direct Deposit or Alerts via email or text messages about daily balance and bill payment activity. The PayPower™ Visa® Prepaid Card is issued by MetaBank™ pursuant to a license from Visa U.S.A. Inc.

The Paybefore Awards, now in its fifth year, are the most prestigious recognition of excellence in the worldwide prepaid and stored value card industry. The awards are presented annually by Prepaid Media, whose Paybefore publications are the leading source of industry information for the global prepaid community. The winners were selected by a panel of five industry experts who served as judges for this year's competition, which – once again – included a record number of entries from around the world. The Paybefore Awards ceremony was held at the 2011 Prepaid Expo USA (www.prepaidexpousa.com) in Orlando.

"In each of its five years, Paybefore Awards has attracted a wider and more diverse group of nominations," added Marilyn Bochicchio, Paybefore's CEO. "This year's entries showed exceptional creativity and thoughtfulness in using prepaid to solve real world payment issues and provide outstanding convenience, safety and control for individuals who are the ultimate users of these products."

About Paybefore

Paybefore is the leading information provider to prepaid and stored value industry professionals, offering the latest news, commentary and analysis. Paybefore's family of industry publications include: Paybefore.com™, a searchable online news and information portal; Paybefore News™, daily news briefs delivered electronically; Paybefore News International™, a weekly compilation of prepaid news and events from outside the United States; Paybefore Update™, a downloadable e-newsletter delivered 20 times a year; Paybefore Legal™, a downloadable e-newsletter covering the legislative, regulatory and judicial developments in prepaid, as well as feature articles by leading attorneys in the field; Paybefore Magazine™, a biannual print publication featuring in-depth articles on the opportunities, challenges and trends in the global prepaid and stored value industry; and the only industry directory, Paybefore Buyer's Guide™, available online and in print. Visit us at www.paybefore.com.

About Blackhawk Network

Blackhawk Network, a subsidiary of Safeway Inc., is a leading provider of prepaid and financial payments products for consumers and businesses. The company's Gift Card Mall™ offers the industry's most popular prepaid gift card and telecom products. Gift Card Mall reaches more than 165 million people each week through an exclusive network of leading grocery stores, big box, convenience, pharmacy, and specialty stores and is available through Internet retailers including GiftCardMall.com. Blackhawk Network's business solutions include reward and incentive programs that offer choice and flexibility through a wide array of card brands, custom designed Visa® prepaid cards and fulfillment options.

Headquartered in Pleasanton, California, Blackhawk Network Inc. has offices in the United States, Australia, Canada, France, Mexico and the United Kingdom.  For more information about Blackhawk Network visit www.blackhawknetwork.com and www.giftcardmall.com.  

Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/GCMall  and on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/giftcardmall.

SOURCE Blackhawk Network