TPG and Essent join forces in customer contact
Cendris Customer Contact and BSC are joining forces in order to strengthen their position in the market creating a company with expected 2004 revenue of EUR60 million. In Amsterdam parent companies Royal TPG Post B.V. (Cendris) and Essent Retail Bedrijven B.V.(BSC) signed a joint-venture agreement. Cendris will acquire a 51percent stake and Essent 49percent, with joint control. The joint venture will have 3250 employees. Cendris and BSC will contribute their call centre business to the joint venture which will be operational after approval by the competition authorities.
Under the new joint venture, customer-contact expertise and capacity will be bundled in order to offer customers even more effectively the full and integrated portfolio of services, including customer service activities and telemarketing regarding sales and promotional activities.
Harry Koorstra, member of the TPG Board of Management and responsible for the company’s postal activities: “We are delighted about the joint venture between Cendris Customer Contact and BSC. Together, the companies will be the clear number-two player in the Dutch call centre market. This will create a strong foundation for growth in the Benelux countries and Germany, and will enable TPG Post to expand its electronic communication and service channels, which are positioned under the name Cendris and Privver”.
Bert Blommendaal, Managing Director of the Retail division at Essent, is also enthusiastic about the joint venture: ‘Working with a key player in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) will help us to refine our services. That is essential, given the liberalisation of the energy market.’
Cendris Customer Contact is a part of Cendris. Cendris is part of Royal TPG Post B.V. In 2003, Cendris recorded a turnover of EUR206 million, and had a staff of 4,400. Cendris offers a range of specialised services in data and document management to customers in the Benelux countries, the United Kingdom, Germany and Central Europe. Customer contact, one of the four business lines of Cendris, offers its services in the European market with over 690 seats (workplaces for call centre agents).
BSC is a leading provider of call-centre services in the Netherlands. Those services include inbound and outbound telephony services, consultancy and interim management. The services are provided by specialised operating companies in order to optimise quality standards. With a total of 900 seats in six locations, BSC works for a wide range of customers in many different sectors, throughout the Netherlands. BSC has almost 2,000 employees.
TPG N.V., with its two brands TNT and Royal TPG Post, is a global provider of mail, express and logistics services. The group employs over 162,000 people in 64 countries and serves over 200 countries. For 2003 the company reported sales of EUR11.9 billion. TPG N.V. is publicly listed on the stock exchanges of Amsterdam, New York, London and Frankfurt.
Essent provides energy, cable and environmental services via its own production and distribution networks. In 2003, Essent recorded a net income of EUR7.1 billion and a net profit of EUR389 million. The company employs 12,407 people.
