Teleperformance USA Layoffs: BPO Provider Cuts 274 Jobs

Teleperformance USA is closing a call center in Abilene, Texas and cutting 274 employees, a local ABC News affiliate reported. The move comes only a few weeks after Teleperformance, a business process outsourcing (BPO) provider, hosted an upbeat investor day in Palm Beach, Florida.

Teleperformance's BPO focus includes omnichannel customer experience management spanning technical support, customer acquisition, digital solutions, analytics, back-office and other specialized services. The company has roughly 190,000 employees across 311 locations in 65 countries.

Like many outsourcing firms, Teleperformance is pursuing higher-margin opportunities. The company is seeking to achieve EBITA margin of at least 14 percent by 2020, according to executive statements from January 2017 -- though I'm not clear on the company's current EBITA margins.

Note: The "depreciation" portion of EBITDA, typically found in U.S. financial statements, is not included in the Teleperformance forecast. Teleperformance is based in Paris.

Teleperformance BPO Growth Opportunities

In a January statement, Executive Chairman Daniel Julien and CEO Paulo César Salles Vasques pointed to "fastest-growing regions" that include nearshore locations serving North America, as well as China and India in the APAC domestic market.

Growth areas include face-to-face visa processing services, analytics solutions and debt collection activities. Those activities are generating an EBITA margin of around 30% and could deliver more than + 6% growth in sales per annum over the next 4 years, the executives indicated.