Bartercard Australia (controlled by Brian Hall, Trevor Dietz and Tony Wiese) has acquired the entire 60% stake of the majority shareholder of Bartercard Ltd (UK); the International licensor of the Bartercard business to business barter trade exchange and global cashless payment system.
Founded in 1991 by Wayne Sharpe, Brian Hall and Andrew Federowsky today sees Wayne Sharpe step down from the role of Executive Chairman and CEO of the Bartercard Group of companies now after selling his majority stake.
Bartercard has been operating for over 21 years in Australia and has 55,000 international business members trading in 6 countries over $1billion a year.
Bartercard Australia team has plans to continue to invest in transactional based technology to make it easier and more convenient for business members to barter trade. Brian Hall says, “We also hope to ignite the international expansion program into other countries to create more travel and import/export opportunities for members worldwide.” Hall further says, “We are looking forward to the challenge ahead that is to make Bartercard as well known to business owners as Visa and Mastercard by becoming the noncash global trading currency of the world!”
Wayne Sharpe, who has led Bartercard since inception and humble beginnings on the Gold Coast, Australia , will concentrate all his efforts in the development of his exciting new carbon trading company called, Carbon Trade Exchange (CTX), which is based out of Sydney, Australia. Hall says “Wayne is hoping CTX will gain a lot of momentum to become a global player through his concentrated focus and with an expected boost of business as a result of the introduction of the carbon tax scheduled to start in Australia in July, 2012.”
Although Bartercard started in Australia the parent company moved to the UK over a decade ago when Wayne relocated to London. Bartercard European headquarters will continue to be led by UK CEO Simon Barker, and the new majority owners have big plans for expansion via their core franchising/licensing model into the UK and European markets. Bringing the ultimate ownership ‘back home‘ will help deliver a bright new future for Bartercard globally according to its outgoing CEO.
“Australians have played a huge role in Bartercard’s global expansion” says Wayne Sharpe. “It’s with great pride I look back on the past 21 years and I have no doubt that the new ownership will invigorate growth, I look forward to seeing the next 21 years.” On CTX he says ”the opportunity to bring my skills and experience to the huge challenge of Global Warming is my next challenge- and one I look forward to with enthusiasm”.
