SITEL Caribbean Coming to St. Lucia
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SITEL Caribbean Coming to St. Lucia |
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George Jude Like Jamaica and other Caribbean islands, the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector in St. Lucia has made it possible for companies, such as SITEL Caribbean to do business here, creating opportunities for the utilization of surplus labour to enhance social and economic development. Commenting on the coming of SITEL to St. Lucia, Prime Minister, Dr. Kenny D. Anthony said, “Our main priority is to provide jobs for St. Lucians, particularly the young people, and the eventual opening of SITEL in St. Lucia will provide a great opportunity for young school leavers. Indeed this is one of the factors that attracted the company to St. Lucia”. General Manager of the National Development Corporation (NDC), Wayne Vitalis said, “This St. Lucia-based facility paves the way for more information technology-related businesses to operate here, and it is testimony to the fact that the Corporation continues to target the sort of business ventures that are sure to generate employment in this country, which is one of the main objectives of the NDC”. SITEL is a leading global provider of outsourced customer support services to clients in the automotive, consumer, financial services, insurance, technology, telecommunications, and utility industries. These clients include major international companies, such as Phillips, United Health Care, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia, Colonial Penn, Bankers Life and Causality, NTT Verio and Information Resources Incorporated. Patrick Casserly, Chief Executive Officer of SITEL Caribbean and E-Services Group Limited has further confirmed that the operation in St Lucia would be located in the 15,000 square-foot, former Bottlers St. Lucia Limited factory on Vide Boutielle Highway, and that the move to St. Lucia represented a diversification of his business, rather than any attempt to move away from Jamaica. SITEL which began operation in Jamaica in 2001, following the liberalisation of the telecommunications sector has been expanding rapidly. It expects to begin another operation at a 50,000 square-foot facility in St Catherine soon and should employ 1,600 persons by mid-year. Mr. Casserly says his almost four-year-old information and communication technology company last year earned more than J$1.2 billion from its operations. "We have had revenues in excess of US$20 million last year and we have been profitable every quarter since the second quarter of 2000," he said. In 2003, E-Services Group’s payroll in Montego Bay, Jamaica exceeded US$10 million, making it the one of the largest single site payroll in that part of the island. Last month the company opened a 25,000 square-foot facility in Kingston, Jamaica which now employs 80 persons. "We will also be opening our stand-alone 50,000 square-foot facility in April or May of this year," Mr. Casserly added. Based on his existing contracts, the company hopes to employ in excess of 1,600 persons and to realise earnings of about US$32 million by year-end. SITEL Caribbean currently manages approximately 2 million customer contacts
per day via telephone, e-mail, Internet, traditional mail, and other media.
Nearly 26,000 SITEL employees operate from more that 21,000 workstations in 79
contact centres located in 23 countries, providing services in more than 25
languages and dialects. |
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