Sutherland to invest $50M in Carmona BPO campus

MANILA, Philippines—Business process outsourcing firm Sutherland Global Services has broken ground on a new corporate campus south of Metro Manila as part of its expansion plans in the country.

According to officials of the US-based firm, it will invest $50 million to build the new BPO and information technology hub in Carmona, Cavite, which will add 8,000 personnel to its existing roster of 13,000 contact center agents nationwide.

“When the current expansion is completed and once the campus becomes fully operational, Sutherland would have had a significant expansion to its headcount in the Philippines,” the company said in a statement.

Globally, Sutherland is one of the world’s largest “pure play” BPO companies with over 30,000 people working out of its 35 operations centers and 10 countries, namely the US, Philippines, India, UAE, Egypt, Bulgaria, UK, Canada, Mexico and Colombia.

The ground-breaking ceremony for the campus was held last Wednesday in the presence of President Aquino and Sutherland Global Services chairman and CEO Dilip Vellodi.

Since its launch in the Philippines in 2005, Sutherland has seen a rapid ramp up of its BPO operations, growing to 13,000 staffers in seven years.

Currently, over 70 percent of the company’s services are delivered from cities outside of Metro Manila, as part of its BPO initiative in the provinces in partnership with the government.

Vellodi said that “a favorable economic environment, availability of high-quality talents, a robust infrastructure and business-friendly government policies” have been prime drivers for the company’s rapid expansion in the Philippines.

“The Carmona campus will be an integrated delivery center for our global clients,” he added.

Established in 1986, Sutherland is a global BPO and technology-enabled services company and is one of the largest, independent BPO companies in the world serving major corporations.

“Sutherland’s exponential growth in the Philippines has been marked by a drive to be best in the industry,” President Aquino said during the ground-breaking ceremonies. “We truly appreciate the rapid growth Sutherland has achieved in our country over the last seven years providing significant employment opportunities to our talented young workforce.”

In his speech, the president emphasized his administration’s focus on aiding the growth of the local BPO industry, which has surpassed India in the call center sphere.

“By the time I step down in 2016, we are looking at revenues that will have more than doubled to $25 billion and 4.5 million jobs – 1.3 million directly as a result of the BPO sector and 3.2 million indirect jobs,” Aquino said.