Godrej acquires US call centre

Our Convergence Bureau
18 November 2003

New Delhi: The Godrej group has entered the global market with the acquisition of Upstream LLC, a US-based call centre company.

Lawkim Upstream Contact Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of Lawkim Ltd, a Godrej company since 1977, has signed an agreement with Upstream LLC to acquire the latter for an all-cash deal. With this acquisition Godrej becomes the first Indian company to acquire and operate a major call centre in the US market. Says Godrej group chairman Adi Godrej: "The deal will help us consolidate our activities and investments in the BPO [business process outsourcing] space. Though we have for long been active through our companies in various parts of the world, this acquisition is stepping stone in creating a global services organisation. We except to be a strong player in this industry over the coming years."

Upstream LLC, a leading provider of call centre and customer care service, operates three call centres in the US. With over 600 employees in the US, Upstream has positioned itself as the largest outsourced customer care company in the travel vertical. Upstream has considerable expertise in providing travel related support including air, hotel and car reservations.

Says Lawkim managing director Vijay Crishna: "This deal marks a new phase in the current interaction between the US and India. For the first time a company that is both strongly positioned in the US as well as in India will be able to offer customers a full range of delivery capabilities. The real differentiator is that we are now positioned to offer clients a choice of both onsite and offshore services — seamlessly." Lawkim has set a target of being a $100-million BPO company over the next three to five years.

Upstream chief operating officer Jerry Johnson: "We are excited about this as the investment will benefit our associates and clients and ultimately differentiate us in the outsourced industry through a unique value proposition that includes US-based call centres and offshore options."