Loyalty Marketing Newsletter Ernex brings you an online newsletter based on loyalty marketing concepts, trends, and insight, published once every three months.

September 28, 2006

McDiarmid Lumber Nails the Launch of a New Gift Card Program

Ernex powered stored-value cards help reduce gift returns

VANCOUVER, September 28, 2006 - McDiarmid Lumber, a leading independent home improvement, building materials and lumber company, has just launched a new stored-value gift card program at its 14 locations throughout Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Northern Ontario. The gift cards are an excellent way for someone to give a gift to the handyperson in their lives, even if they don't know exactly what tool or supply that person wants. Ernex, a division of Moneris Solutions Corporation and an industry leader in real-time loyalty and stored-value gift card programs, provided the technology for the gift card solution.

"Getting this program launched going into the busy fall and winter holiday season was very important to us," said Jim Popowich, Director of Marketing for McDiarmid Lumber Ltd. "Being a large regional merchant, we are constantly looking for ways to make our stores and product offerings competitive with the national merchants in the home improvement, building materials and lumber space."

"As gift cards become a "must-have" for regional merchants, the combination of payment processing and gift card processing that we can offer becomes a very attractive package," said David Ades, Senior Vice President Sales, Ernex and Moneris. The gift cards are activated and processed through a combined debit/credit/gift card processing terminal from Moneris Solutions Corporation.

According to Malcolm Fowler, Senior Vice President & General Manager of Ernex, gift cards are ideal for a merchant like McDiarmid, where people may be overwhelmed by the broad selection of merchandise available when purchasing a gift. "It gives the recipient of the gift card the opportunity to choose exactly what they want, and reduces the merchant's costs of managing returns." said Fowler.

Stored-value gift cards are an ideal payment vehicle at businesses where customers shop frequently. Not only do they build loyalty between the customer and the business, but they reduce the transaction costs for the merchant.

About McDiarmid Lumber
McDiarmid Lumber celebrated its 75th anniversary in 2002. We are one of the largest home improvement, building materials and lumber companies in Manitoba and are the only family-owned and locally-operated Home Centres. The company employs approximately 500 people in over 500,000 square feet of retail, manufacturing, distribution and office space at 14 locations spanning Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Ontario. For more information, please visit www.mcdiarmid.com.

About Ernex
Ernex, a division of Moneris Solutions Corporation, is a provider of innovative real-time marketing solutions including privately branded and multi-merchant loyalty programs, stored-value gift cards, reward fulfillment services and loyalty database hosting services. Leading companies in the financial, retail, restaurant and hospitality industries as well as large membership organizations use Ernex solutions. For more information, contact Ernex at 877-GO-ERNEX or visit www.ernex.com.

About Moneris Solutions Corporation
As Canada's largest provider of payment processing solutions for merchants, Moneris offers credit and debit card payment services for virtually every industry segment. Through its Ernex division, Moneris offers leading-edge electronic loyalty and gift card programs. With more than 350,000 merchant locations, Moneris works with a range of business partners to provide the hardware, software and systems needed to improve business efficiency and manage point-of-sale information. Moneris employs over 1,100 people at its head office in Toronto as well as at offices in Montréal, Vancouver and Sackville and a subsidiary in Chicago. For more information please visit www.moneris.com.

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