Lyoness International AG

[LYONESS]

PRESS INFORMATION
Buchs, 04-2011
Lyoness International AG: An idea sweeps the world
Since it was founded in July 2003, Lyoness has taken over the
international market:
Today, the Lyoness shopping community has over 1.7 million members in
21 European
countries, the USA and Canada, as well as the Middle East. It also has
over 100,000
points of acceptance from 18,500 loyalty partners. With the opening of
the United Arab
Emirates (Dubai), Lyoness is now active on 3 continents.
The Lyoness Cashback Card – The benefit card of the future! With its
business idea,
Lyoness International AG – which was founded as Lyoness Holding Europe
AG in July 2003 –
has offered the benefit card of the future since its founding! It
connects members and loyalty
partners together as an independent shopping community. When you shop
and utilise the
Lyoness Cashback Card, vouchers, electronic vouchers (Mobile Cashback)
or if you shop
online with Lyoness loyalty partners, you receive money back with
every purchase - country and
sector spanning.
„Together we are strong!“ This motto is true for many aspects of life.
Hubert Freidl, Founder
and the CEO of Lyoness International AG, developed a business idea
based around this
philosophy. In 2001 the trained Wholesale Dealer had the idea of
creating a union of like
minded people to form a shopping community. This became such an
enormous shopping force
that members get money back with every purchase.
An idea takes hold. It didn’t take long to become a success: Within
the first year, the Lyoness
community already had 7,600 members. The constantly growing number
of members quickly
showed that Hubert Freidl had found a gap in the market. Today,
Lyoness Europe AG has 350
service-employees that make up a constantly growing, future orientated
and strong team who
currently support 1.7 million members, as well as training those
interested in business in the
benefits available to them with Lyoness.
The international set-up of the Lyoness network is planned for 33
countries in Europe, as well
as Asia and Africa. The countries Austria, Germany, Switzerland,
Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech
Republic, Bulgaria, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Poland, Italy,
Turkey, England, Greece,
Ireland, the Netherlands, Belgium, France and Macedonia have already
been put in place
successfully. With the founding of Lyoness America Inc. in July 2009,
and its opening on the 6
th
of February 2010, Lyoness has also laid the foundation stones for
further success overseas – in
the USA and Canada.
4 types of shopping. By paying with the Cashback Card, vouchers from
Lyoness loyalty
partners, or with electronic vouchers, members can receive 1-2% of the
value of their purchase
in their personal cash account. Since April 2009 they can also enjoy
the Lyoness benefits via
Online Shopping. Once they have reached a minimum of €10 in their cash
account, this will be
transferred to their personal bank account. For every purchase made by
direct or indirect
members that they have recommended, they will also receive a further
0.5% of the purchase
value in their cash account
With the Lyoness Application programme for Smartphones (better known
as an App.), the
Lyoness community now has another payment possibility available to
them. With this App.
members can login to the website at m.lyoness.ag from their mobile
phones anywhere in the
world. As long as the member has enough money in their cash account,
the electronic voucher
can be downloaded. As well as the previous types of shopping that were
available the electronic
voucher is another attractive way to shop and receive money back.
Lyoness ISO-9001 and TÜV certification
With the awarding of the ISO-9001:2008 and TÜV Rheinland
certification conducted by
Quality Austria GmbH, Lyoness has achieved an important step with
regards to international
comparison.
What was particularly gratifying for CEO Hubert Freidl was the fact
that the certification could be
performed in an extremely short period of time. This was primarily due
to the professional
support from Quality Austria and the active participation of all
employees during the audits.
Since 2006, almost a million companies and organisations worldwide
have received the ISO-
9001 certification. Under this international qualification, it is
possible to establish criteria to
monitor an Organisation and its quality systems, irrespective of the
size or sector in which it
operates, within a global standard. The ISO-9001 standard is aimed at
a uniform terminology.
Terms such as requirements, customer satisfaction, product, process,
system, quality and
quality improvement are defined and are therefore internationally
comparable.
The Quality Austria, Trainings, Certification and Appraisals GmbH is
the market leader in
Austria, and is a member of the most important international quality
organisations and is active
in more than 50 countries. The certification was awarded to Lyoness
Europe AG, all European
regional offices, the Child & Family Foundation, the service
subsidiary for all countries -
Lyoness Management, eBiz and Data Service.
Moreover, the TÜV Rheinland certification for "A proven service that
provides price benefits to
a shopping community / CASHBACK" was also awarded to Lyoness as the
first shopping
community in the world and the service subsidiaries for all countries
- Lyoness Management,
eBiz and Data Service - as well as the regional offices Lyoness
Austria, Lyoness Suisse and
Lyoness Germany. TÜV Rheinland examined the promised price benefits
for members and
awarded a neutral certification. This independent and voluntary
examination of Lyoness
included an analysis of the quality management processes, the complete
contract process with
loyalty partners and consumers, as well as customer satisfaction.
The TÜV Rheinland audit means that, in addition to optimising the
business processes,
members and loyalty partners have additional reliability and
orientation. The TÜV Rheinland
certification aims to examine the promised Lyoness services, to carry
out an independent
examination and to monitor compliance periodically. This certification
was also successfully
concluded within a very short time. TÜV Rheinland is a leading
international services company
with 490 branches in 61 countries on all continents with the
philosophy and guiding principle
“development of sustainable safety and quality”.
As part of the ISO-9001:2008 certification by Quality Austria, Lyoness
was also awarded the
internationally recognised IQNet certification. The IQNet company was
founded in 1990 and
has its Head Office in Switzerland. It is an international umbrella
organisation of national market
leader accredited system certifiers and has 40 Partner countries
worldwide.
The IQNet certification is awarded together with the ISO-9001 and
ISO-14001 by the relevant
national representatives, for example Quality Austria. To date IQNet
Partners have given more
than 310,000 certificates in 150 countries and represent a global
market share of approximately
30%. The IQNet Partners meet regularly to exchange worldwide
experience regarding
standards and guidelines. Around 17,000 auditors and experts are
constantly trained regarding
national and international specifications. IQNet certificates are
recognised worldwide and are
highly valued, particularly in Eastern Europe, Russia and Asia.
Help for people in need – The Lyoness Child & Family Foundation. For
every purchase
made, a percentage goes to the Lyoness Child & Family Foundation,
which was founded in
May 2008 with the philosophy „Preserve life through education” and
gives people in need a
better chance in life.
„From the start, it was always my goal that the success of my company
would be used to help
people who lack the education or opportunities to secure their own
place in life by themselves,
as I do. A social network such as Lyoness has the possibility to help
others. I am pleased that
we have also been able to do this with the creation of the Lyoness
Child & Family Foundation,”
says Hubert Freidl regarding the success of his charity work.
Lyoness connects consumers and loyalty partners in a huge shopping
community, creating a
Win-Win-Win situation for all participants.
http://www.lyoness.net/medien/ma_3/01.04._EN_new_01_Lyoness-International-AG.pdf