Even Snapple, an American iced tea maker with a homespun image, is outsourcing work to an Indian company. But in unusual twist, the deal may increase jobs in the United States.
The brand’s parent company, Dr Pepper Snapple Group, said Tuesday it had signed a new, five-year contract with HCL Technologies, a major information technology and outsourcing company based in Noida, India. HCL will manage Snapple’s computer networks — but may be hiring in the United States to do it.
HCL said Tuesday that Dr Pepper Snapple would be its “anchor service desk customer” in a facility in Raleigh, North Carolina, that would eventually employ 500 people. With the new deal, HCL is continuing to “bring on new staff at our new facility in North Carolina,” Shami Khorana, president of HCL America, said in a statement.
Indian IT and outsourcing companies have been increasing their use of “onshoring,” or putting jobs in a client’s home market, as political pressures build to grow jobs in countries hard hit by the economic slowdown.
Onshoring is being directly promoted in some markets. The Australia Computer Society, a trade group, said this month it was trying to help its members win back work that had gone overseas.
HCL said in August of last year that it would invest $3.2 million to open a North Carolina facility. At that time the company employed 3,000 workers in the United States and also had operations in China, Ireland and Poland. HCL employs over 60,000 people worldwide, the bulk of them in India.
Other information technology companies, like Tata Consultancy Services, have set up huge overseas operations. T.C.S., as it is known, now employs about 12,000 people outside India, according to the company’s latest annual report.
Terms of the HCL and Dr Pepper Snapple deal were not announced. HCL beat out I.B.M. for the contract.