Scottish jobs on the line as Vertex eyes Indian call centre expansion

Published on Sunday 23 March 2003 00:00

MORE Scottish call centre jobs could be put at risk after one of the largest employers in the Highlands admitted it is exploring opportunities to expand in India.

Vertex, the customer management arm of United Utilities, which employs more than 1,500 people at seven call centres in Scotland, is in talks with several existing clients to transfer parts of their contracts to an Indian call centre it bought into last December.

In a trading update to the stock market last week, United Utilities said: "Vertex is now pursuing a number of opportunities to utilise the low cost Indian contact centre capacity included in the acquisition."

Vertex bought 7C, a call centre operator with operations in London, Merseyside, Wales and a joint venture in New Delhi, for an undisclosed sum last year. Vertex had already been running its own pilot contact centre in the sub-continent prior to the deal.

A spokesman for the company said discussions with existing clients were at an early stage. He said: "This is about offering new and existing clients blended operations from the UK and India, it is not about moving work wholesale out of the UK."

7C India employs 200 workers but has a capacity for another 600. Beyond that, the spokesman said, "it is too early to say what the future holds for an Indian expansion".

Telecoms companies have been forced to reassess their operations over the past few years as a boom in cheap "offshore" call centre employment in countries such as India and South Africa has threatened to displace more expensive workers in the UK.

BT and the holiday firm Thomas Cook have both taken jobs out of Scotland in the past year and opened operations abroad, where workers can be paid a fraction of the salary.

Vertex’s call centres in Scotland are located in Inverness, Dingwall, Nairn, Forres, Edinburgh and two in Glasgow. Clients of the firm include the internet company Cable & Wireless and the online ticket booker thetrainline.com.

It took over the operation from Cap Gemini Ernst & Young, which retains a 12% stake in Vertex.

Capacity was cut at the Forres site after Vertex lost a contract with the mobile phone operator One2One, which is now called T-Mobile. A replacement customer billing contract with TXU Energy, which collapsed last year, has transferred to the new owner Powergen.