UK's Astron plans to up India headcount to 1,000 by '04
By siliconindia staff writer   |   Thursday, 11 September 2003, 19:30 IST
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CHENNAI: The UK-based Astron BPO plans to increase its headcount in Chennai to 1,000 in a year from about 250 at present, reports Economic Times, a business daily in Inida. Astron Group had recently acquired the BPO operations of Hays at Chennai, Trivandrum and Colombo. Astron’s India operations head, S Venkat Kumar, said it had a few projects in the pipeline entailing a ramp up. “We may also acquire BPO companies in similar areas of operations,” he added. Presently, the BPO has 12 clients in the areas of finance, accounts, insurance, banking and bureau services, he said. Astron is also into business transcription services, where agents transcribe audio recordings of claims-related conversations for insurance companies in UK. Mr Kumar said, the company was in the process of identifying a facility that would accommodate at least 1,000 employees. “We are looking at various options such as whether to have it at the heart of the city or locate it in the IT Park,” he said. Astron BPO has about 600 employees in India, of which 250 are in Chennai and the rest in Trivandrum. According to Astron Group, the acquisitions, including Colombo operations, would increase its turnover by £180m and add 2,700 employees. According to Hays web site, it sold its BPO operations for a cash consideration of £21m. These generated a business of £120.8m in ’01-02, and employed 4,500. Of these, Astron acquired Castleton Document Technologies, UK, Crawfords Marketing Technology, UK, DEI Document Management, UK, Poland and Asia, Customer Solutions, UK. Other purchasers bought Ceritex, France and Secure Destruction (JV), UK. (Courtesy: Economic Times)