Pepper to merge with Global Savings Group

Posted 7th Dec 2022
We wanted to share some news with you - our parent company Pepper, which runs deal communities (including hotukdeals) in 12 different countries, is joining forces with a company called Global Savings Group, with the merger planned to complete at the end of this year. We believe this will allow us to help more people to save money, in new and exciting ways.

Who are Global Savings Group?

Global Savings Group (GSG) is a leading provider of cashback websites and vouchers across Europe. They started up a decade ago, and now run some of the largest cashback websites in Europe - including iGraal and Shoop (France and Germany’s version of Topcashback/Quidco) - as well as providing the vouchers that are fed onto websites like Metro, MailOnline, CNN and more.

If you’ve Googled and ended up on a newspaper or other publisher website and unexpectedly seen vouchers there, they could well have been provided by GSG.

Why?

The paths of the two companies have crossed many times over the years as our missions are very similar - to help people save money when shopping. Whereas we bring together communities of experts to help each other make shopping decisions, GSG is great at negotiating vouchers and cashback that make deals even stronger. So our founders and GSG’s decided to merge in order to combine the expertise and resources to create a stronger and more comprehensive platform for users.

You can read a full account from Fabian, the founder of Mydealz and CEO of Pepper, over here on Mydealz (right click in Google Chrome and it will offer to translate to English for you)

Is Pepper being bought?

No, this is a merger where both companies are coming together to form a new joint organization. The shareholders of Pepper are not selling their stakes and the founders who still work at Pepper will not be leaving. Additionally, Pepper (and hotukdeals) remains autonomous and independent following the merger and Fabian - our current CEO - will be Managing Director of that part of GSG.

What changes will I see on hotukdeals/Pepper/etc?

The communities at Pepper are better and bigger than anything else in the shopping or deals category - that’s a big reason why GSG were interested in merging. While they operate successful cashback and voucher sites, they do not currently have popular communities. So they will be looking to benefit from our expertise, not change our direction. So our goal is to enhance what we already have and make it better - not fundamentally change it.

Specific projects and ideas are yet to be decided - the merger has not even completed yet (it should do by the end of this year). We would expect there to be benefits to our community though from the fact GSG is a leader in vouchers and cashback, something our users already make great use of.

How will this impact community policies and rules?


It won’t. The corporate change happens on a holding level and not on the operational level. Changes that happen in the community are changes we believe will help us achieve our mission of being the best place to come to exchange information with other experts and make great shopping decisions.

In fact one of the things that makes the merger attractive for GSG is that, while they operate successful cashback and voucher sites, they do not currently have popular communities. So they will be looking to benefit from our expertise, not change our direction.

Is this just about making more money?

Pepper and GSG are already profitable companies, because both of us meet the needs of millions of people across many countries - helping people make good shopping decisions and make purchases as cheaply and smartly as possible.

But we approach things differently - our communities are the lifeblood of Pepper and will remain this way. However, vouchers are not our expertise even though they are a fantastic way to save money.

For instance, despite much effort and investment in improving our position in Google search results, we frequently rank lower than other websites with worse vouchers and less traffic. So areas like this are where we hope to improve. Of course, if successful then this will result in more people using our vouchers, saving more money and also us making more money. The core factor driving us though is the ability to help more people in bigger and better ways

If by “making more money” you think of the founders of the business cashing in and “exiting” the business, the answer is also no. All active founders of the respective communities stay on board and roll over the vast majority of their shareholding into the new group and stay involved in their current roles. Fabian will also join the management team of GSG, while staying CEO of Pepper.

Will deals/vouchers get worse?

No. The founding mission of Pepper is to help users cut through marketing rubbish and find the best deals, tips, bargains, vouchers - we believe it’s what sets us apart from potential competitors. We already reviewed our publication rules earlier this year to bring them more up to date, and the principles we use will remain the same. We are open to flexibility and broadening some of our rules but always with the focus of helping users share deals that the majority would agree are helpful and the best available.

By working with GSG, we hope it enables us to negotiate bigger and better deals with retailers - we’re at the beginning of the journey, but watch this space

Will cashback be allowed?

Cashback is part of GSG’s bread and butter, and working with them to find a solution that fits our communities makes total sense. We haven’t got anywhere near discussing the details yet, so we don’t know all the problems or what the solutions to those would be. Also, they only offer Cashback in Germany and France at the moment so that will be an obstacle to overcome. So tentatively this is something you can expect to see more on, but we don’t know exactly how or when yet.

So there's still a lot of open questions about what will happen and when - this is the start of a process rather than the end, but we wanted to keep you all informed. Pop any questions below and we'll do our best to answer them
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  1. Onlydongles's avatar
    Onlydongles
    So will the silly and disproportional censorship increase/decrease?
    Azwipe's avatar
    Azwipe
    Can't be any worse, hopefully they sack the mod team and bring in some decent impartial staff.
  2. ukros's avatar
    ukros
    Will we still be able to point out when a deal can be made even better by the use of Topcashback or Quidco, as well as any GSG cashback offering? (edited)
    Jason's avatar
    Jason
    You already can mention it if you wish The product price cannot include the cashback element in the total cost because it comes some time after and for comparison at the point of the deal being posted, there might be a better deal which does not involve waiting weeks/months for the cashback to payout.

    What we allow to be posted as standalone deals is a cashback bonus which usually tracks after opting in and you can spend it across a number of sellers or products.

    Just one of the many examples from Quidco here.

    Here are examples of Topcashback.
  3. Personator1234's avatar
    Personator1234
    Too early to ask for the return of FS/FT
  4. RoosterNo1's avatar
    RoosterNo1
    Can you please use this opportunity to sack the over zealous, illiterate zero sense of humour (or context) mods ?
    bozo007's avatar
    bozo007
    I don't blame the mods but the people who wrote the moderation policies.
  5. bob-mk2's avatar
    bob-mk2
    We would expect there to be benefits to our community though from the fact GSG is a leader in vouchers and cashback

    So, a free voucher for every current HUKD member, right?

  6. Imogenthat's avatar
    Imogenthat
    Will you still continue to do business in Russia? I fail to see how this is benefitting the community?
    Dan's avatar
    Dan Author
    Pepper Russia will continue to help its community save money and we'll stay in touch with the people running it, but it will move onto a different web platform in future (probably next year) and be run separately, not as part of Pepper
  7. Muig1972's avatar
    Muig1972
    I guess, some way down the line, GSG will be able to promote its vouchers and cashback deals (once it's set up in the UK) here.
    Jason's avatar
    Jason
    Hopefully we'll be able to negotiate bigger and better deals as a result of this merger. Whatever happens though it is important to repeat what Dan said in the description:

    Will deals/vouchers get worse?

    No. The founding mission of Pepper is to help users cut through marketing rubbish and find the best deals, tips, bargains, vouchers - we believe it’s what sets us apart from potential competitors

    ---

    No plans are firmed up yet about the crossover of content but I do think this can only be a positive outcome for consumers.
  8. dcx_badass's avatar
    dcx_badass
    Has anyone ever had a single code work from those crappy spam pages on news websites? Because I haven't.

    I already hate the fact we can no longer comment on vouchers posted on here (unless attached to a deal), loads don't work and there's no way to get feedback before you waste your time trying them, or to let others know. (edited)
  9. Rmcstar's avatar
    Rmcstar
    Quick question - we can't mention other deal websites. Once the merge is complete, would voucher companies who have been allowed on here be disallowed?
  10. Conkers816's avatar
    Conkers816
    How will this impact community policies and rules?

    It won’t.

    So no ban amnesty then huh ?
  11. JRSC01's avatar
    JRSC01
    Hmmm... interesting reading...
    Interesting to see how moving forward, what changes or ideas will be brought forward not just for Pepper, but the community in general also. (edited)
  12. Deedie's avatar
    Deedie
    Do they have a good comments section in place. And get rid of this one on here
  13. bozo007's avatar
    bozo007
    If GSG was interested in the merger, then Pepper is being bought, however it is spun . As long as it works for users and employees, that would be a good thing. (edited)
    wherehere's avatar
    wherehere
    you could spin it the other way as well
  14. aturner123's avatar
    aturner123
    Where things could improve are your social media posts. Increasingly becoming clickbait posts.
  15. MildmanneredCalvin's avatar
    MildmanneredCalvin
    Late to the party as I've only just seen this, but with changes afoot, is there any chance of this truly dross reply being changed to perhaps what it was before? The flow of discussion is difficult to follow on longer, multiple replies from users that can side branch into mini threads themselves.
    RedNWhite's avatar
    RedNWhite
    I think that ship has sailed… hotukdeals.com/dis…889

    I agree though, there are still times where I play the ‘hunt the reply’ game
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