Aegis Limited, the Essar Group subsidiary, announced that it would be setting up its first office in Britain, the first step of its ambitious expansion plans for Europe.
The global outsourcing services provider said it would open a new customer centre in the northern British city of Manchester later this year, adding around 600 new jobs to the local economy.
A number of additional service centres will be opened across Europe over the next two years.
The company said it was “entering the UK and European outsourcing market at a time of strong forecast market growth.”
“Our strategy is to ensure that people calling our centres get an excellent experience, and we think that generally, the best way to do that is to have a strong onshore presence, rather than having centres offshore,” said Mr Aparup Sengupta, Global Chief Executive and Managing Director of Aegis.
The company said it would be servicing a number of blue chip clients from the new offices.
The availability of a large and flexible labour pool and the city's universities were some of the factors that went behind the choice, following a consultation process.
Greenfield centres
“This approach of setting up greenfield centres in our target markets will be at the heart of Aegis' plans to further expand in other European countries.”
The move is the latest expansion into Europe of the Essar Group. Earlier this year, Essar Energy agreed to buy a refinery in the northwest of Britain from Royal Dutch Shell for around $350 million in cash.