The group, which is to invest this amount in the 200 seat contact centre over the next three years, has let the entire third floor comprising 1338 square metres in the Knowledge Park office block at Century City.

Peter Winslow, Group Chief Executive of Budget, says that the insurance group had chosen Century City, Cape Town after considering a number of other locations.

"The Budget Group of Companies already has very close ties with South Africa and our experience of the country is that it is culturally a good fit to the UK. Century City/Cape Town was chosen because of its already thriving call centre industry, its competitive cost base compared to Johannesburg and a local English accent which will be appropriate to the UK."

Winslow said the contact centre, which at full capacity would employ 200 people with a view to possible expansion in the future, would be an extension of Budget’s activities in the UK where it planned to double its customer base to 1,6million within the next two years.

The Century City-based call centre, he said, will be up and running by June and will operate in real time and be fully integrated with the UK contact centres. A unique technology solution, devised by Telkom specifically for Budget, is to be implemented.

Winslow said recruitment of the management team, which started in September last year, had been completed and the team was presently working in the group’s UK contact centres for a three month period to fully understand the culture, values and management style of Budget.

"Recruitment of advisors starts in early February and will be managed through a recruitment agency. Candidates will be taken through a series of competency based exercises and interviews. After this the initial group of advisors will start a six weeks’ training programme that will be based on Budget’s UK training programme with a further two weeks’ focusing on UK culture, vocabulary, geography and some of the more unusual UK dialects."

Winslow said the Budget Group had an affiliated company in South Africa, Budget Insurance Brokers (PTY) Ltd which was established in 1998 and which had been extremely successful in the South African short term insurance market.

"Budget has registered the new contact centre as a South African company under the name of Fusion Outsourcing Services (PTY) Ltd, so this investment will not only provide excellent job opportunities but will also contribute to the country's economy through Fusion paying company tax in South Africa."

The South African operation will be headed up by Steve Loose who has more than 10 years experience in contact centre operational management with Budget and who has worked on the project since its early development.

Budget was introduced to the owners of Knowledge Park by Century City Ltd, the owners and developers of the 250ha mixed use development.

Greg Deans, managing director of Century City Ltd, said this would be the fifth significant call centre to be established at Century City in recent years and the second in the Knowledge Park building which overlooks Intaka Island, Century City’s award winning wetlands conservation area.

"The reasons cited by call centres for locating at Century City are its close proximity to major arterial roads, its excellent infrastructure, the quality of lifestyle offered with the highly attractive blending of the built and the natural environments and the proximity of world-class leisure and shopping facilities. In addition it is situated within easy distance of sizeable and growing residential developments which can provide large labour pools, " he said

Tracy Rogers of RMB Properties which manages the Knowledge Park office block said with the third floor now let to Budget, the 5787 square metre building was fully let. Other recent leases have been signed with Discovery Health, Outdoor TV Network and TMT Services and Suppliers.