PayPoint grew its pre-tax profits by 5.5% to £34.5m in the year to March 27 2011, but the amount paid out in commission to retailers actually fell.

Revenue for the year was 1.7% lower at £193m largely due to a fall in mobile top-up transactions and this, coupled with reduced commissions paid out by the phone operators, meant that agents' commission fell from £73m in 2009-10 to £71m last year, PayPoint explained.

The pay terminal provider increased its net revenue - which is the company's earnings less the cost of mobile top-ups and commission paid out to retailers - by 6.9% to £82.7m despite the drop in total revenue. Overall, the company processed a record 590 million transactions through its network, with 517 million of these taking place in retail outlets.

Net revenue from retail services, including parcel collection, ATMs, SIM cards, credit/debit card acceptance, receipt advertising and money transfer were up by 25%. Operating costs were 17.7% higher during the year partly as a result of the legal costs involved in fighting off Camelot's failed bid to provide bill payments and phone top-ups.