American Express continues to grow its coverage in the UK with the signing of several leading businesses across the food-to-go, home improvement and wider retail sectors. Taken together, these merchant signings represent thousands of new places that now accept American Express, with the total number of UK locations growing by almost a third (30%) year-on-year.
American Express Cardmembers can now use their card at renowned family-owned retailer Timpson across its portfolio of approximately 2,000 stores. Furthermore, as part of a new agreement with EG Group, Amex is now accepted at over 1,000 food-to-go locations on petrol station forecourts and motorway services in franchise outlets such as Starbucks, Subway and Burger King.
Fast-growing variety retailer B&M has recently begun accepting Amex in its 700+ stores nationwide, demonstrating that access to Amex’s loyal and high-spending Cardmember base is highly attractive to merchants across the retail landscape.
Complementing this, American Express has boosted coverage across the home improvement sector with acceptance in Dulux Decorating Centres, City Plumbing and Tapi Carpets stores nationwide. Charities Sue Ryder and British Heart Foundation (BHF) have also recently signed, adding to Amex’s existing strong acceptance in the charity shop sector. BHF will begin accepting Amex payments in its retail stores later this year.
Dan Edelman, vice president and general manager, UK merchant services at American Express, said: “In the UK, our Cardmembers can use their Card at more places than ever before, and we remain committed to ensuring that Amex is accepted wherever they want to shop. We’re experiencing great momentum, significantly expanding our coverage because both large and small merchants see the value Amex offers, which includes access to our loyal and high-spending Cardmembers.”
James Timpson, chief executive, Timpson, said: “Giving our customers a great experience and choice in how they pay is hugely important to our business. We’re delighted to partner with American Express and are already seeing the value of welcoming their Cardmembers in our stores across the country.”
Ahmed Kazi, group operations director at EG Group, added: “We have a longstanding partnership with American Express, and this new extension means that we will now be able to accept Amex payments at more of our popular third-party brands in the UK. This will allow us to serve customers with a wider range of payment options, showing how we continue to invest in customer experience across our sites.”
The new signings join an ever-increasing number of businesses that see the value of accepting American Express, which includes every major supermarket chain and the vast majority of high-street retailers in the UK.
Along with the growing number of larger merchants, there are more UK small businesses on American Express’ network than ever before – over a third (37%) more than this time last year1. When it comes to backing them, American Express is founder and principal supporter of Small Business Saturday, the grassroots, not-for-profit campaign which marks its 11th anniversary in the UK in 2023 (2 December). The company’s popular Shop Small campaign – incentivising and rewarding Cardmembers to spend in participating small businesses – also returns later this year.
Globally, the number of places that accept American Express has more than doubled since 2017, giving existing and new Cardmembers more and more places to spend.
