Ascensos, the Motherwell-based customer service specialist, has been acquired by an Indian business processing giant in a deal which values at the company 42 million.

The Scottish firm, which has clients such as Aldi, John Lewis, and Wickes, has been taken over by Mumbai-based Firstsource, part of the RP-Sanjiv Goenka Group, nine years after it was established by John Devlin, Dermot Jenkinson and Katrine Young in 2015. The trio built up and sold their former beCogent call centre firm to Teleperformance of France for £35 million in 2010.

Ascensos employs 3,000 people with offices in the UK, Romania, Turkey, Trinidad and South Africa, and turned over £64.1 million in 2023.

A statement said Mr Devlin will continue to lead Ascensos as a separate business unit within Firstsource, retaining its brand and Scottish headquarters in Motherwell “while using the combined company’s technological capabilities and expert employees to serve the retail industry better”.


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It noted that Ascensos' clients will benefit from its new owner’s technological capabilities in artificial intelligence, analytics, and automation, “empowering it to develop advanced solutions tailored to the retail market”.

Mr Jenkinson will remain involved in an advisory capacity.

Mr Devlin said: “I am delighted that we’re joining the Firstsource family, the combined strengths of the businesses are entirely complementary with barely any overlap either geographically or in our concentration on retail and B2C (business to consumer).

“This makes us a perfect fit and with the opportunities that come from being part of a larger group, I see many possibilities to leverage our respective strengths. The depth of Ascensos expertise in the retail and e-commerce sectors, now combined with the strength of Firstsource technology and expansive global capabilities, will only accelerate our transformation programmes for existing clients while improving our operational experience for our customer-facing colleagues.

“Both Ascensos and Firstsource have enviable reputations for delivering world-class customer experience for blue-chip brands – we look forward to growing our global solutions together.”

Dr Sanjiv Goenka, chairman of RPSG Group and Firstsource, said: “This acquisition is aligned with the strategic capabilities Firstsource has been pursuing toward growth and expansion. We’re thrilled about the potential that Ascensos’s extensive retail knowledge, Firstsource’s advanced technology, and the RPSG Group’s deep expertise bring together.

“Ascensos opens a host of new growth opportunities for us that are underpinned by our strategy of delivering differentiated services built on deep industry knowledge and tailored technology. This collaboration will benefit our current clients and enable us to pursue new opportunities in the thriving retail sector.”