A family-owned managed print services provider is among the first in Ireland to reward its remote Irish workforce with digital local gift cards for their nearest town/city, locking the firm's reward spend into the country.

Waterford based Cantec is using 5 local Town & City Gift Cards – the Think Waterford First Gift Card, the Love Drogheda Gift Card, the Limerick Gift Card, the Kilkenny Gift Card and the Lakes Gift Card – to reward its field based technicians who are based across Ireland.

Delivered by global gift card specialist Miconex, the Town & City Gift Cards initiative is active in 16 Irish towns and cities. The cards are branded to specific places and can be redeemed with registered businesses in that town, city or region, including shops, restaurants, pubs, salons, hotels and services.

Miconex announced €17.4m in local gift card sales in 2025, an increase of 65% on 2024, which it estimates will drive 335,000 specific visits to Irish high streets and shopping districts in 2026, based on estimates of 3 trips into town per gift card.

Cantec invested €25,000 in digital local gift cards at Christmas 2025 tax free using the Revenue's Small Benefit Exemption scheme, and say choosing local gift cards based on where each employee lives ensures their reward spend stays in Ireland.

Éadaoin Carrick is the executive chairperson of Cantec Group, and president of Waterford Chamber and said: "One of the disadvantages of the Small Benefit Exemption is that it facilitates employers gifting global gift cards that can be spent outside of Ireland. We made the decision to try and keep the spend in the local economy, and in Ireland, by choosing local gift cards for each employee based on where they live, primarily for Waterford where we are based, but also for Limerick, Kilkenny, Drogheda and Ballinrobe.

"Everyone buys online occasionally but many high streets are dying because people are not walking into shops and buying things from local shops, they are buying from Amazon instead. The Christmas reward we offer for staff is a bonus outside of their regular salary, and I'd like to ensure that the bonus we give to staff stays local and on our island, benefitting people in Ireland. Choosing Town & City Gift Cards ensures our reward spend stays local."

A number of chambers and business organisations have upgraded their paper 'shop local' programmes to high tech physical and digital gift cards alongside Miconex. A dedicated corporate order site allows organisations to purchase physical or digital Town & City Gift Cards for one or more of the 16 Town & City Gift Card programs in Ireland in one order, with digital cards delivered employees on a chosen date/time.

Éadaoin is positive about the efficiencies that digital can offer for organisations: "The Miconex corporate site is such an easy system to use, simply selecting the local gift cards you need and the values. I specifically opted for the digital gift cards because it's handy for employees to have their card in their digital wallet, ready to tap to pay with local businesses. People will always have their phone with them, so it's a reward that is more likely to be used.

"For us as an Irish business, choosing local rewards is about practicing what we preach, leading by example, and supporting Irish businesses that in return support us. We have to support each other. By choosing local gift cards, you can keep money in your hyper local community, in your region or in Ireland overall. Local people benefit when you support local economies."

Colin Munro is the CEO of Miconex and said: "We introduced our digital gifting technology in Ireland in 2024 to enable organisations to easily reward their staff with local gift cards. The appetite for supporting local in Ireland is incredibly strong, as evidenced by the growth of our local gift card programmes across Ireland in 2025. As the Town & City Gift Cards network grows, what we're beginning to see is medium to large organisations like Cantec, with s...