Sutherland forays into Kerala

The New York-headquartered Sutherland Global Services has forayed into Kerala by setting up shop at the Muthoot Technopolis in Kochi.

Company sources said Sutherland would invest over Rs 120 crore as part of its expansion into Kerala and go in for a major recruitment to man its Kochi facility. The company expects to hire 3,000 professionals over the next three years for its Kerala operations. As part of the immediate expansion, Sutherland would hire 500 professionals for its Kochi facility, they added.

According to George Muthoot, director, Muthoot group, the agreement for establishing a BPO facility of Sutherland at the Technopolis has been successfully concluded. Sutherland would occupy one whole floor at the Technopolis, he said.

Elaborating on the reasons for expanding into Kerala, Dilip Vellodi, chairman and CEO, Sutherland Global Services, said, "We are confident that the talent pool and robust infrastructure in Kerala will provide advantages of cost, scalability, and more importantly, value across the spectrum of services we offer to our clients. With our geographical reach, our ability to introduce new services and the capability to meet the changing and growing needs of our clients and their customers has increased our competitive edge in the market place."

The Kochi foray marks Sutherland's second new geographic expansion in a year. The company had in July 2005 launched its operations in the Philippines. Sutherland Global Services has ramped up its headcount in the Philippines to over 750 against a phase-1 target of 500 professionals.

As part of its Philippines expansion, Sutherland plans to double its headcount over the next six months that will take the total strength in the Philippines to over 1,500 employees.

Sutherland, with a global employee base has its delivery centers located in the US, Canada, Philippines and India . Of these, over 8000 are based in India. The number is set to move up once the recruitment for the Kochi facility is complete.

The company's BPO facilities in India at present are in Chennai and Mumbai. Sutherland's clients include prominent names in the banking and financial services, retail, IT and communications sectors.