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CALL-center operator Eperformax Contact Centers, an
affiliate of one of the country’s largest shipping firms
owned by the Delgados, said it is not interested in
diversifying its operations and serve the logistical
needs of various foreign and local shipping firms, and
would instead focus on its core business.
Company
general manager Carlo Severino, in a briefing Thursday,
said they may be growth in call-center operations both
in Manila and in Cebu, but expanding to serve logistics
companies is out of the question at the moment.
“We’re
sticking to that [voice service to foreign firms] for
the next couple of years, even if we are an affiliate of
a shipping company,” Severino said.
“We’re
not mixing up with other forms of business, unless
there’s a natural growth [of demand from the shipping
and airline sectors] and there’s a need for it,” he
added.
Eperformax is an affiliate of Transnational Diversified
Group, which, in turn, holds the country operation of
NYK Lines, one of Japan’s largest shipping lines.
Transnational Diversified, established in 1976 by Jose
Roberto Delgado and Kiyoshi Osawa, is engaged in mostly
shipping and manning operations, including logistics,
freight forwarding, total ship management, seafarers’
recruitment and development and other air-passenger and
cargo services.
Transnational Diversified, which also owned debt-laden
EasyCall, has expanded and diversified its operations
early in the decade to include call centers after its
paging business suffered losses from the introduction of
text messaging services in the country with the advent
of mobile phones.
Transnational Diversified established ePerformax in
partnership with US-based Performance Consulting Group
in 2002. Eperformax was supposed to have its initial
public offering this year, but backed out indefinitely
as a result of weak market conditions.
Severino
said that from less than 200 employees in 2003,
ePerformax has since expanded with a huge facility in
Cebu province, and its employees of mostly call-center agents now
number about 2,500.
This
year he said they plan to add 800 to 1,000 more seats,
mostly in Cebu, and another 1,000 in 2009 to meet the
demand of customers abroad affected by the US economic
slump.
“We will
spend about $4 million to $5 million for the
expansion…but it will be mostly on voice-based service,
which we think where our strength is,” Severino said.
The
company said that transferring back operations from the
US or Canada to the Philippines translates to about
20-percent to 40-percent savings for clients as a result
of low labor cost, among others.
Servicing the needs of shipping and ship-management
firms is an emerging business in the shipping industry.
Last
year the Magsaysay group, the country’s largest manning
firm for Filipino seafarers, invested in Shipserv Ltd.,
a London-based service provider for oceangoing shipping
firms, after the local company saw an opportunity to
make good money in the business.
Shipserv
is one of the few ship- management firms in the maritime
industry and does business by sourcing out supplies and
spare parts of vessels. An oceangoing vessel, on the
average, spends about $500,000 a year in supplies and
crew complement, excluding oil purchases. |
