Bradford city centre’s high street shops, bars, restaurants and leisure venues have been handed a much-needed boost in the Christmas run-in.
The Bradford City Centre Gift Card has launched, and it can be used at around 70 businesses – including the football club.
Brought forward by Bradford Business Improvement District, shoppers will be able to spend the flexible gift card at all participating businesses and venues such as The Alhambra, The Light, M&S, Primark, The Entertainer, Mario’s, Impressions Gallery, City Vaults and The Midland Hotel.
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Bradford BID manager Jonny Noble said: “We’re really thrilled to be launching this exciting new scheme which will give shoppers and leisure-seekers a great way to spend while also supporting local businesses.
“Everything from food to clothes, drinks, a show, football match or hotel stay – every penny is supporting the Bradford economy and the flexibility of it means it’s a brilliant opportunity for people to discover and enjoy all our city centre has to offer.
“We are delighted that many of Bradford’s well known, popular local independent businesses are involved in the scheme – such as Blooms on Market Street, Huma Humad, Airobounce, Apricot, Funzy, Pizza Pieces, Threads, Tiffin Coffee, for instance – along with more recent additions to the city centre including Brewdog and German Donner Kebab, so this offers a great way for people to discover, or rediscover, the wide variety of stores, leisure and hospitality venues we have to offer.”
The card can be purchased from http://www.bradfordgiftcard.com or from the Visitor Centre and also soon from Bradford City. It works as a pre-paid Mastercard, with physical or digital versions available.
Physical gift cards are sent to the recipient by post with an optional gift message. The digital version of the Bradford Gift Card will be available from December 7.
Consumers can load between £5 and £500 onto the card and recipients have 12 months to spend. A full list of businesses accepting the Bradford City Centre Gift Card can be found on the website.
Michaela Ramsden, manager of the live music venue and rock bar Nightrain said: “We think the gift card is a fantastic idea and it can only be a good thing for city centre businesses. Because it’s so flexible it means every business – including bars and leisure venues – could benefit and it’s especially important because it means that money for presents that might otherwise have been spent outside the city has to come back into local shops.”
Asma Bibi, sales manager at The Great Victoria Hotel, added: “Anything that encourages people to shop here on their doorstep has to be a good thing. We have lots of fantastically loyal customers in Bradford and it will be great to be able to help them to show others how much we have to offer.
“Bradford has a fabulous reputation as a place where you get genuinely friendly, personal service and the more people we can get to experience that, the more people will come back and everyone will benefit.”
The Bradford Gift Card is part of the award-winning Town & City Gift Cards programme from payments provider Miconex. There are more than 100 card programmes across the UK and Ireland, including six other schemes in Yorkshire, with Barnsley, Halifax, Harrogate, Scarborough, Sheffield and York on the physical front.
Managing director of Miconex Colin Munro said: “Bradford is one of the first cities in the UK to launch its own physical and digital gift card, leading the way in the digital high street revolution. Even though physical gift cards are still most popular right now, GCVA data shows a clear trend towards digital gift cards with 38.4 per cent moving to this type of gift card in 2020.”
