Luke Mills, executive director of Western Cape call centre promotion agency Calling the Cape, has resigned to head up the local operations of an as yet unnamed major US outsourcer.
Mills, who has headed Calling the Cape for over three years, has overseen the considerable growth in the province's call centre industry. Employment in the sector surged by 41% since 2005, to more than 22 000, with 7 500 jobs created during the past year.
Calling the Cape is a non-profit organisation founded in 2002 and funded by the private sector, as well as by government. Its mission is to develop and support the contact centre and business process outsourcing industry in Cape Town, through investment promotion, training, enterprise development and by providing an industry association.
Mills says he will take up his new position in June and will not disclose the name of the company because it has its own process to follow.
"My leaving is really to put into practice what I have been saying for some time: that while the local industry is seeing huge growth, it will only be a major outsourcing destination once we get large US outsourcers making a definite presence. We have had good responses from British and European firms; we need the large US players here," he says.
Sustainable model
As far as the sustainability of the local outsourcing is concerned, Mills feels it is overcoming many of the obstacles that initially hindered its growth.
He says labour costs in countries seen as main competitors to SA, namely India and the Philippines, have increased by 25% per year over the past three years, while in this country they have only risen 11% during the entire period.
Furthermore, the South African government and the private sector have also invested heavily in the sector, Mills says.
A Western Cape call centre industry report released by international consultancy Deloitte last month says the sector is a significant contributor to the provincial economy, with a total economic impact of between R2.5 billion and R3.3 billion per annum.
"The more than 200 companies in the industry account for 2.4% of gross regional product for the Western Cape and 3% of formal employment in the Cape Town metro," the report says.
Contribution
Calling the Cape chairman Sipho Zungu says Mills had made "an immense contribution, both to the organisation and to the industry. Since 2003, Calling the Cape has directly facilitated 30 new investments that have injected nearly R4 billion into the local economy.
"Even more importantly, it has helped to establish Cape Town, and SA in general, as viable locations for offshore investments, putting the industry on a solid growth path into the future."
Zungu says Calling the Cape's board intends to appoint a new executive director by the end of May, with vice-chairman Shafick Hamdulay acting in the position in the interim.
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