Not even COVID can stop them

The top 5

For a fourth year in a row, Enterprise Services Bulgaria leads the rankings. The entity is a result of the global merging of Hewlett-Packard Enterprise and Computer Sciences Corp. in 2016, which led to the establishment of DXC Technology. Enteprise Services Bulgaria is the heir to the long-time leader Hewlett-Packard Global Delivery Bulgaria Center. After the deal, two entities started working in the country - Enterprise Services Bulgaria and DXC Technology Bulgaria (formerly known as CSC Bulgaria), which has close to 400 employees. DXC Technology Bulgaria is part of the software developers rankings of K100, but both entities are owned by U.S.-based DXC Technology.

The outsourcing company has succeeded in inmaintaining its growth, with revenue reaching 259m levs in 2020, although profit fell a little. Employee headcount has also grown despite the hard year. The Bulgarian entity delivers a number of tech and other services to the global clients of DXC in countries such as Germany, USA and the UK.

Second is the company with the fastest growing business in recent years - Callpoint New Europe, which works in Bulgaria through the brand TELUS International Europe. It is part of Canadian telecommunications giant TELUS, which bought it in 2012. Revenue jumped 24% to 199m levs in 2020, taking Callpoint New Europe ever closer to the leader. Through its offices in Sofia and Plovdiv, Callpoint New Europe works for clients around the world, such as Google and Facebook. Last year the company added some new clients and expanded its footprint in the gaming area. Callpoint New Europe has the highest profit in the sector (34.3m levs, an impressive 55% jump year-to-year) as well as the biggest profit margin in the rankings. Third is another big and established player, which has been on the market for a number of years and has also been constantly growing -Sutherland Global Services Bulgaria, part of global group Sutherland. In the first months of the pandemic some of the big clients of the company, particularly those in the hotel sector, such as Hilton, and the transport industry, were hit hard. Their woes affected the Bulgarian entity, but despite that it managed to focus on other projects and continue its growth, in terms of both revenue and headcount. Margins also increased significantly, with net profit trebling up to 17.8m levs. Sutherland has office centers in Sofia, Burgas and Varna.

The fourth position goes to IBM Bulgaria, which has been operating for years. Revenues rose to 140m levs last year. In Bulgaria the entity works both for IBM and other non-domestic clients. It offers a variety of services - hardware and software, financial and accounting analysis, logistics and others.

Fifth is Modis Bulgaria, the successor to Adecco Bulgaria, which worked in the country as a hiring company and outsourcing center. International group Modis took over the outsourcing business. The entity is a leader in growth speed - in 2019 its revenue jumped up 36% to 60m levs, while a year later it grew even faster - by 59% to 95m levs.

This year even more

Only one company among top 10 has a slightly lower revenue in 2020, compared to 2019. Another one has a slightly lower number of employees. Forecast for this year is that the industry is going to continue growing, even faster than in 2020. According to industry association AIBEST, there have been 81 thousand employees in the outsourcing sector, with data as recent as mid-2020. It also predicts that in 2022 the industry will contribute 8.9% of Bulgarian GDP. The coronavirus has changed the sector and most of the companies are still operating out of office but the crisis has surely made the outsourcing industry more resilient and adaptive. The other strong trend that has been amplified by remote work is that salaries in outsourcing are growing, with the gap between Sofia and other cities getting smaller.