allpay Limited has recently passed the annual physical audit of its card manufacturing bureau. The audit, carried out by Visa towards the end of 2016, comes after a £1million investment into the UK payment specialist’s design and production facilities.

The increase in equipment and resource spans across bureau, manufacturing, warehouse, logistics and engineering. The significant investment has covered the cost of a new building, new equipment and the expansion of the card manufacturing team from approximately 24 to 49 employees over 12 months. New roles implemented include a production planner and stock controller to improve control and visibility. Changes within the senior management team have also been made, with the appointment of a new manufacturing and bureau operation manager and a new director, Ceri Davies.

The bureau facility is now operating from a new fully purpose built building which has allowed the existing building to be renovated to create a new, larger manufacturing layout that includes a new Quality Area and Work in Progress room. New machines implemented include Hologram, Chip Embedding and Card Inspection, which will help the firm to create custom designed cards for their clients, including a Premium high end rose gold card.

The annual physical audit was conducted against the highest standards of PCI Compliance and assessed a wide range of factors including the security of the building, physical control and movement of the cards, access control, HR training, credit checks and police checks.

Jamie Taylor, head of card manufacturing and bureau operations at allpay Limited, said: “We are delighted with the near perfect score awarded to our card manufacturing bureau, following its annual physical audit. We have invested a lot of time and money into improving our facilities and growing our team, with the goal of providing excellent service. The improvements will aid us in the design and production of bespoke cards, created to meet the specific needs of our customers.”