hen asked to describe his company, Westley Horton, Vice President, Marketing and Financial Services for Cardtronics LP, said, "I like to say we are the biggest, the baddest and the best." While some might wish to argue with some of those claims, there is no disputing the first. Cardtronics is in fact the world's largest independent owner/operator of ATMs.

"Our primary service is to provide single source ATM solutions," Horton said. Cardtronics provides comprehensive ATM services to businesses of all types and sizes, from individual "mom and pop" stores to multi-location national retailers.

"We are a one-stop shop for small merchants as well as national merchants," Horton said. The company also provides ATM services, such as branding and outsourcing, to financial institutions.

Cardtronics ATMs are ubiquitous. Visit the company's Web site and type in a zip code, and you will most likely see a list of 10 locations nearby that have Cardtronics ATMs. The company has a network of more than 25,000 ATMs in every major U.S. market and in all 50 states. It also has 1,000 locations throughout Great Britain.

Cardtronics ATMs are in malls, grocery stores and discount stores. Some national retailers that feature Cardtronics ATMs include A&P, Albertsons, Barnes & Noble, BP Amoco, Chevron, Costco, ExxonMobil, Kroger, Target and Walgreens.

"We started off in the convenience store market," Horton said. "We now have a major presence in pharmacies, grocery stores, etc. If Visa hadn't taken 'Everywhere you want to be' we would have used that!"

Growth Through Acquisition

How does one become the largest ATM owner/operator? In the late 1980s, Cardtronics founder, Ralph Clinard created and patented a scrip machine, which he sold to high-traffic merchants and corner stores. Those scrip machines served as a precursor to today's ATMs.

In 1989, Clinard founded what is now Cardtronics. As the company grew, it purchased more and more ATMs, which it then resold and installed in merchant locations. By 1997, Cardtronics had approximately 4,000 ATMs in its portfolio.

"At that time, the company decided it wanted to grow more significantly than it could by selling one ATM at a time," Horton said. So, it started purchasing ATM portfolios. Cardtronics continued to employ this strategy and has completed a dozen acquisitions in the last four years. In June 2004, the company acquired the ATM business of E*TRADE Access Inc., a subsidiary of E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corp. The transaction included more than 13,000 ATMs. In March 2005, Cardtronics acquired an ATM portfolio from BAS Communications Inc., a New York ISO. The transaction included more than 450 ATMs in the New York City area. The majority of the machines are located in non-chain, independent grocery stores primarily in Brooklyn, the Bronx, upper Manhattan, Queens and Staten Island.

Two months later, Cardtronics grew again when it acquired Bank Machine Ltd., an England-based ATM deployer. The expansion into the international ATM market added approximately 1,000 ATMs to the Cardtronics portfolio, bringing the total to more than 26,000.

The Bank Machine ATMs are located throughout Great Britain in a variety of venues such as shopping centers, convenience stores, pubs and post offices.

In 2004, Cardtronics ATMs dispensed more than $6.5 billion in cash and processed more than 111 million transactions.

The company employs more than 150 professionals at its Houston headquarters; it is one of the nation's fastest growing ATM deployers.

This growth has landed it on Inc. magazine's list of fastest growing, privately held companies the last four years.

A One-Stop Shop

As mentioned previously, Card-tronics specializes in ATM products and services. Part of the reason it can offer such a range of specialized services is because it has created strong relationships with major ATM manufacturers and industry vendors, including Diebold Inc., NCR Corp., Triton, Bank of America Corp., First Data Corp., Genpass Inc. and EFMARK Premium Armored.

"We offer cash replenishment, armored service, processing, turnkey services ... we do it all," Horton said. "We even offer 'merchant assist' programs in which the merchant provides the cash, and we provide the rest."

Cardtronics understands that as a true one-source provider, it must also be there when something goes wrong. That's why the company offers 24-hour customer service and technical support. It also continuously monitors transaction processing and settlement.

"We have a whole department for monitoring and cash management," Horton said. "We have sophisticated and quite often propriety systems making sure that cash is available at all times."

The company also offers detailed reports for each ATM, to evaluate each machine's performance and profitability. "We can tell within minutes of a downtime of any machine whether the line is down, if the machine is out of cash or if there is a jam," Horton said.

Once Cardtronics identifies the problem, Horton said the company usually fixes it within 24 to 48 hours. Sometimes they fix it on the spot, over the phone. "If we can, we handle the problem over the phone or we call the maintenance provider and have it fixed," he said.

"If we don't have a resolution from the maintenance provider within two hours, we follow up until it is resolved."

ATMs Can Benefit Merchants and Banks Alike

As many merchant level salespeople are aware, ATMs help merchants increase sales. Studies indicate that having an ATM on premise helps to increase sales because customers spend as much as 25% of the withdrawals directly in the store.

When merchants have an ATM in the store, they not only earn revenue from each transaction, they also enjoy an increase in overall sales. Also, a customer's use of an on-site ATM can reduce a merchant's credit card fees and losses associated with non-sufficient funds checks. Finally, an on-site ATM offers customers convenience, and this convenience might lead to repeat business.

Banks and credit unions also benefit from working with Cardtronics. First, they can outsource their ATM operations. Financial institutions reduce their costs by taking advantage of Cardtronics' national partners for armored service, processing, first- and second-line maintenance or cash management.

As with retail merchants, financial institutions are free to pick and choose which Cardtronics' services fit their needs. Banks can also take advantage of branding programs offered by Cardtronics. "We provide service for people who want us to run their ATMs," Horton said. In this case, banks put their name directly on the Cardtronics ATM, and their members enjoy convenience as well as an absence of surcharges.

"If you go to ExxonMobil stations in Texas, you will see a Cardtronics ATM," Horton said. "There may be another bank logo, such as CHASE, on it, but it's a Cardtronics ATM."

Financial institutions can also choose to display customized messages on the ATM screen.

It's not a mistake that Cardtronics is the world's largest owner/operator of ATMs. The company has earned this distinction by focusing on providing comprehensive service and forming solid relationships with vendors and suppliers. Those relationships, along with a successful history of acquisitions, have made the Cardtronics name synonymous with ATMs.