One4all Leader Jock Plays His Cards Right
From its beginnings as the Gift Voucher Shop to its acquisition by Blackhawk, Jock Jordan has been a constant at One4all, writes Nick Mulcahy
The period up to Christmas should be bountiful for One4all, the gift card business that commenced trading two decades ago. In his Budget 2023 announcement, finance minister Paschal Donohoe raised the Small Benefit Exemption from €500 to €1,000, and with two payments per year permitted instead of one.
The exemption allows an employer to provide non-cash benefits or rewards to their workers without the payment of income tax, PRSI and USC. Tax-free vouchers or benefits can be used only to purchase goods or services.
The minister is hoping that employers will use the tax-free payment to ease cost of living pressure for staff. AIB and Bank of Ireland have signalled that all their employees will receive a €1,000 voucher, and other large employers will be under pressure to follow suit. At the banks, the staff union applied pressure, and trade union Siptu intends the one grand voucher will be on the table during current wage-agreement negotiations.
One4all isn’t the only gift card processor but it’s the longest running and the market leader. Two decades ago, it was a gutsy indigenous startup, and now it’s owned by Blackhawk Network, an American global player in the gift cards sector. Jock Jordan (63), who leads the operation in Ireland, has been with One4all for the entire journey, and says he has never lost sight of his work/life balance.
“It’s something I’m passionate about for my own employees as well,” says Jordan. “I’m a busy man but
I’m an organised man, let me put it that way. If you organise yourself it takes the stress out of life. Control the controllables and don’t worry about the
things that you can’t control. That’s my philosophy in life.”
Christened Jonathan, Jordan couldn’t control school pals renaming him Jock, and the name stuck (“only my mother calls me Jonathan now”). Jordan was working with Aer Lingus when One4all founder Michael Dawson came calling with an idea for Gift Voucher Shop, the original name of One4all.
Dawson, a serial entrepreneur, had the idea of a gift voucher venture after having to drive miles out of his way to purchase a store voucher in the centre of Dublin. “Michael had this idea that if you could buy a retailer voucher in multiple locations it would be very popular,” Jordan recalls. “He pitched me for an hour or so over coffee at the airport and I was convinced. I had always wanted to do something noncorporate, and it was such a fantastic idea and such a challenge that I couldn’t turn it down.”
Jordan’s profession is sales, and he was tasked with lining up the retail partners. Gift Voucher Shop (GVS) mulled possible distribution