Case Studies

Dixons Retail

Dixons Retail plc is one of Europe's leading specialist electrical retailing groups, which sells consumer electronics, personal computers, domestic appliances, photographic equipment, communication products and related services. The company trades through over 1,200 stores and online, spanning 28 countries and we employ 36,500 people. Dixons Retail is the number one market leaders in the UK & Ireland, Nordics and Greece.
The Group's Shared Services Centre in Brno opened in September 2007. Since then it has grown to provide a wide range of other services such as Accounts Payable, Accounts Receivable, Finance Support, E-commerce marketing and software development, customer support and Group IS support.

Brno was chosen as the centre’s location as it best fulfilled the selection criteria (including workforce availability, quality and cost of available office space, regional tax policy and political stability) in comparison with Prague and other potential locations in Central and Western Europe. Future expansion of the centre is planned.

“We were searching for a stable location with the potential for finding trained specialists at a reasonable price, people who would be motivated by the possibility of having a career in a powerful pan-European group,”

Kevin O’Byrne, previous Chief Financial Officer.

Currently the company employs over 270 people supporting 14 countries in 7 languages and offers a range of part-time and full-time positions.

The Panalpina Group

logo Dixons Retail The Panalpina Group is one of the world's leading providers of supply chain solutions. The company combines its core products of Air Freight, Ocean Freight, and Logistics to deliver globally integrated, tailor-made end-to-end solutions. The Group operates a global network with some 500 offices in more than 70 countries, and it works with partner companies in a further 90 countries. Panalpina employs over 16,000 people worldwide.

After a thorough assessment process and project preparation works Panalpina opened its first Business Service Center for Europe in July 2013. The center provides business support services to the company’s core processes - namely to its Freight Forwarding and Control Tower operations in European countries. The initial focus was aimed on Ocean Freight Export Documentation as the project pilot scope, and from thereon it gradually expanded to other processes.

Panalpina has chosen Prague, Czech Republic for:

Availability of well-educated staff with required language skills and logistics or international trade experience
Geographical proximity to the largest logistics markets in Europe (Germany in particular)
Availability of high quality yet reasonably priced real estate
Advanced infrastructure available in the city of Prague

As of September 2015:

Today the center employs 160 people who support Ocean Freight processes in multiple European languages (primarily English and German).
The existing office capacity is designed to accommodate up to 200 people – which is the planned size by end of Q1/2016.
Further roll-in projects with various European countries are planned for the next 2-3 years to continue expanding the centers service offering.

“We were searching for a location that would support our ambitious project which was a global pilot for the Panalpina Group. Looking back at the past 2 years development I believe we have chosen the right place to be as we have found a capable and motivated team of people who help us to make the project a success. At the same time we faced almost no technical obstacles thanks to the advanced state of the business property and the related IT and communication infrastructure.”

Volker Böhringer, Regional CEO Europe