7 hours agoCall-center bankruptcy begins within just three days, three companies closed.
Periskopi(9 years ago)
(9 years ago)The survival of Call Centers in Albania is becoming more difficult, especially for those that remain unsolving in the market or who have modest activity compared to “the greats”. In the last three days of June alone, there are three companies that have declared closure of activity, adding to the list of those who [...]
The first is Capital Markets opened in 2014, oriented to call centre service and consultancy, which has initiated liquidation procedures. During 2015 alone, the company reported an annual circulation of some $26 million (,200 thousand euros), according to the official balance.
Spending on insurance wages to the company was 15 million dollars, or about 62% of total expenditures, while call center is an intensive labour capital sector. Although in the first year of activity, the company has proved profitable with a profit ahead of $2m tax, or a profit margin of 8%.
The other two companies are Sistema CIA and Busines Global Spupport both opened last year in March and June, respectively, with their objects offering consultancy and call center service. For the very fact that the market operating deadline is short, companies do not have their financial situation declared.
Call Center's closure in Albania is turning into a recent normality where in mid-June another company declared closure. Hello Com was created in the form of a society with limited capital responsibility of 100,000 dollars owned by partners Giancalo De Berardinis, 70 percent holder of quotas, and Pierre Frisol, owner of 30 percent of capital quotas.
By the end of last year, call center was a rapidly growing business, while Italian companies were moving this activity to Albania, exploiting the free cost of the workforce and recognising Italian by young people.
This rapid increase alarmed Italian authorities, which came under pressure to lose jobs in Italy and move them to Albania and began taking drastic measures.
In Italy, on April 1st, the law “for defunction” and call center, which tightened rules for shifting activity from Italy to non-EU member states, went into effect. Adopted in December last year, the law was given a transitional period to enter into force in order for companies to get acquainted with new rules, standards implementation, reporting the number of employees, address to headquarters, data protection, etc.
Italy's initiative for delocalisation alarmed Call Center companies in Albania, which were penalised because they were operating in a country that is not part of the European Union. Not in a few cases was the concern of bankruptcy and the risk of losing thousands of jobs. The government at the time had a pale reaction through a letter to the Italian side but failed to get any positive answers.
On the other hand, market operators said the mother companies were taking steps to shift some of the activity to other countries in the region, such as Romania or Bulgaria.
In May of this year, Italy's final centrist hit came from Italy. 13 companies signed a protocol of understanding with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentillon and Economic Development Minister Carlo Clenda. This agreement envisions that “9% of activities directly conducted in Italy pass within six months of signing and new contracts -- at least 80% of outsouring volumes -- be carried out on Italian territory”.
There are 13 companies engaged in this deal. These subjects, they make up 65% of the sector for the lap: Annie, Enel, Sky, Mediaset, Tim, Vodafone, Wind Three, Fasteb, Intesa San Paolo, Unicredit, Poste Italian, Ntv, Traintaglia.
Sector
In total, there are about 800 companies in the sector in Albania, with about 25 thousand employed, according to official data. But, the data from the biggest employers shows there are 6-7 major companies, which together have about 10,000 employees. Major enterprises are estimated to succeed in resisting Italian pressure and to be disqualified, while small ones will find it more difficult.
Even before the Italian government approved sanctions in December last year, the sector had shown problems. The profit rate has fallen, the bigs are no longer growing, and small enterprises -- especially those with Albanian owners -- face contractors' removal or defaults on their part. There are times when Italian investors come and open two three centimeters and close them in a short time. /Monitor
