Irish e-commerce player creates 50 jobs


7 Nov 2007

An Irish payments company that processes close to €4bn worth of payments every year is to create 50 jobs in the next 18 months, it emerged this morning.

Dublin-based Realex processes in excess of €3.5bn worth of payments annually for international online retailers and corporate players such as Aer Lingus, Aer Arann, Quinn Direct, Vodafone, Party Poker, Motortax.ie, VHI and parts of Ryanair. The company recently announced a substantial deal with Hong Kong e-commerce vendor CD-Wow.

The company provides internet-based card processing, fraud management, direct debit, currency conversion and payment reconciliation services.

The company is headed by Colm Lyons, a former executive at Ulster Bank, and has over 2,000 clients.

Realex experienced strong growth in the past two years and the number of staff has doubled year on year, from 14 employees in 2005 to almost 50 today. Lyon plans to double this number to 100 in the next 18 months.

The company’s growth has been boosted by a number of recently signed corporate clients including Perlico, Tesco Mobile, Superquinn, Buy4Now and Jacky Skelly Fitness.

“We are not just expanding our Irish operations; we are also opening a dedicated Realex Payments UK office in London to capitalise on our existing success in the UK market where 30pc of new business emanates each month,” Lyon explained.

By John Kennedy