StarTek Formally Opens Its Makati BPO Facility
Manila, Philippines, January 19, 2009–High-value business process outsourcing (BPO) services provider StarTek, Inc. (NYSE: SRT) inaugurated its Makati facility today with President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and 80 senior industry officials attending the formal ceremony. StarTek began operations in the facility, which delivers services for Fortune 1000 corporations in the United States, in September last year. Beginning operations with approximately 50 pioneer managers and agents in September, StarTek is on its way to expanding that number to its total capacity for the facility of 1,100. “We have experienced tremendous response from our recruitment efforts in the first few months of operation,” said Larry Jones, StarTek president and CEO. “And our clients are impressed with the quality and dedication of our agents here in the Philippines.”
StarTek provides customer care, sales support, complex order processing, accounts receivable management, technical, and industry-specific services, and also specializes in high-value, non-voice customer care and provisioning services. The StarTek facility in Makati is the company’s first facility outside the United States and Canada. It has 19 sites in North America.
The formal launch of the StarTek facility followed projections by the Business Processing Association of the Philippines (BPA/P) and independent analysts that 2009 will see significant growth in the Philippine BPO industry despite a general global economic downturn. A recent survey conducted by BPA/P and Outsource2Philippines revealed that 70% of BPO executive respondents in the Philippines believe that the global financial crisis will have either a neutral or positive impact on their Philippine operations.
In 2008, the Philippine BPO industry generated approximately US$7 billion in revenue according to the Commission on Information and Communications Technology (CICT). CICT expects 2009 industry revenues to increase by as much as 35%. Firms looking for ways to lower costs and increase service quality achieve those objectives by outsourcing services to providers in countries such as the Philippines. By 2010, a BPA/P forecast projects industry revenues of between $12 billion and $13 billion.
Much of that growth will be in high value-added services such as those provided by StarTek. “The complex support services we provide our clients are integral to our clients’ operations and their relationships with their customers. Our proven capability to deliver high-quality, high-value services has consistently made us the number one services provider for our clients; but more importantly among our clients’ clients,” said Jones.