118 Group opens new operation in Asia on Monday 15 January 2007
Daniel Corby CEO 118 Group Holdings opens a new call centre in Asia on Monday 15 January 2007 to fuel UK growth
[UKPRwire, Sat Jan 13 2007] Daniel Corby, CEO 118 Group Holdings plc announces the opening of a new call centre in Asia to support group’s UK growth
Speaking about the announcement, Daniel Corby, Group CEO said “as business across the group has grown during the last year, we have recently opened an additional 8,000 square foot call centre in Chelmsford and have now had an offer accepted on another centre in the town of around 17,000 square feet. We have also invested massively in our IT infrastructure and senior team and are completely confident that we can grow the business to a headcount of around 800 people within 12 – 15 months, making us one of the town’s largest employers. To aid this UK growth, we have today announced the opening of an additional centre in Asia working on our telecom business. This call centre will provide additional resource for the UK business and allow the business to achieve its targets for 2007 / 2008. We have had operations for 118trades in Asia since Mid 2005 and have been delighted with the enthusiasm and skills of the local workforce. If the new centre operates to targets and KPI’s we plan to grow the headcount in Asia to 100 people by June 2007”
Daniel Corby continued “118 Group’s cross selling opportunities for the business are huge and we fully expect the business to achieve double digit growth for 2007 and beyond. From humble beginnings in 2005, 118trades has become part of the multi million 118 Group, with interests in Advertising, Directories, Media, Mobile, Publishing and Telecoms. The business is now one of the largest on-line directories in the UK, sold through telesales and inbound response from UK call centres. The recent launch of tastymobiles which will now be connecting to all 6 mobile networks will enable the group to offer more to its customer base than ever before. Fido Media is expected to be a significant contributor to the 118 Group Holdings plc”
Notes to editors
The group is now starting to think and act like a plc ahead of the planned float and has recently made some high profile appointments including business veteran Richard Allan, the former CEO of Perry Group plc as Chairman, Hugh Craen, the founder and mastermind of Potential Finance Group plc which floated on AIM in 2002. Hugh joins the business as a non executive director, Peter Hill as Group FD, who joins from Dorma Door Controls Limited, Scott Barker as Head of Risk, previously from World Pay and Meta Charge. In addition, Ian McLachlan, the recently retired head of Trading Standards of Hertfordshire, who has become Head of Ethics for the business and will oversee the way the business manages relationships with shareholders, staff, customers and suppliers. The business is now in talks with a former Director of Yellow Pages with regards to taking a board position with 118 Group Holdings plc. Further statements will follow in due course
118 Group Holdings plc successfully completed pre IPO fund raising exercises in October 2006 ahead of the planned AIM float and is growing ahead of forecasts. Last month the business announced the creation of 300 new jobs in Chelmsford and is recruiting rapidly. A third call centre for Chelmsford is currently at the planning stage following an offer being accepted by landlords for additional space of 17,500 square feet.
You can read more about the business at www.the118group.com
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