ServiCom’s saviour?
Iowa City businessman Anthony Marlowe could finalize purchase of Sydney call centre next week
An Iowa City businessman who grew from humble beginnings as a telemarketer to a call centre manager by the age of 21 is on the cusp of purchasing the ServiCom Canada Ltd. call centre in Sydney, the Cape Breton Post has learned.
Anthony Marlowe, now 39, is the CEO and founder of Marlowe Companies Inc. (MCI), which is a holding company for the call centre and digital technology businesses he operates – Mass Markets, Gravis Apps and OnBrand24.
He was part of a group of investors that attempted to reach an agreement to buy ServiCom Canada on Dec. 5 before the deal collapsed when an agreement couldn’t be reached with Coral Capital Solutions, a factoring group, also known as an alternative financier, for ServiCom.
The next day, operations ceased at ServiCom’s call centres in Sydney and Machesney Park, Ill.
ServiCom’s parent company, New Jersey-based JNET Communications LLC, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in a Connecticut court on Oct. 19.
Since then, lawyers for the debtors — JNET and its subsidiaries, ServiCom Canada Ltd., ServiCom LLC and Vitel Communications LLC — and creditors that have done business with ServiCom attended successive bankruptcy hearings in an attempt to save the 600 jobs at the Sydney site.
In an email to the Cape Breton Post on Thursday, Marlowe said he is “going to need a few days” before commenting on the potential deal, presumably to finalize the legal work on a purchase agreement for the call centre, located at the rear of the Sydney Shopping Centre.
The call centre’s four clients – GM OnStar, Sirius XM satellite radio, AT&T and Allstate Insurance – are also part of the bankruptcy process.
In U.S. bankruptcy court in Connecticut on Wednesday, Stephen Kindseth, lawyer for the debtors including ServiCom Canada, said he’s ready to push ahead with a motion to approve a sale of the customer service contracts with ServiCom Canada’s four clients for $400,000. The motion was expected to be filed at some point during the day on Thursday. He said there is a need to move quickly with at least one of ServiCom’s clients, AT&T, ready to cut ties with the Sydney call centre, setting a “hard deadline” of Jan. 1 for the call centre to resume operations.
An emergency hearing on a potential sale is now scheduled for Tuesday afternoon.
“We’ve made a tremendous amount of progress,” said Kindseth to presiding Judge Ann Nevins.
“The four customers are very receptive to the concept. They want to transition the business. They need it transitioned immediately or they will go elsewhere.”
He said it would be a matter of the buyer to “simply start a new business in Canada,” by rehiring the employees who were laid off on Dec. 6.
Several times during the hearing Kindseth referred to the new entity as MCI Canada.
Kindseth indicated “significant progress” has been made on the existing leases ServiCom Canada has with Growth Fund Equipment Finance of Riverton, Utah and its landlord, Crombie REIT, in which ServiCom owes two months of lease payments.
The deal to finalize the sale could happen within a week with employees returning to work “in a matter of days,” possibly during the Christmas week, he told the court.
Growth Fund Equipment Finance is ServiCom Canada’s largest unsecured creditor, owing the equipment rental company $289,097.34. Crombie REIT is owed $76,856.17 for back rent.
If he takes over ServiCom, Marlowe, his impressive credentials aside, has some growth figures that would likely give some former call centre employees reason to be optimistic.
Marlowe founded business process outsourcing company, TMone, in 2003, and served as its CEO until 2007. TMone changed its name to Mass Markets in 2015.
He was recognized as one of the 25 youngest CEOs in the U.S. by Inc. Magazine in 2007.
Marlowe went on to acquire software company Gravis Apps in 2016 to bolster its technological capabilities.
He quickly followed by purchasing Boston-based call centre OnBrand24, a company that provided online customer service for about 200 mid-sized companies.
He has also served as the principal for Iowa City Capital Partners since 2013.
In an interview with the Iowabased Corridor Business Journal in June, Marlowe spoke about revenues at his companies, particularly at Gravis Apps — bringing MCI’s current run-rate revenues to $44 million for 2018 from actual 2017 revenues of $38 million. The next goal is $50 million.
“We skipped the offshore call centre trend,” he told the weekly business publication after accepting an award as the fastest growing company in the region.
“We’re not skipping the trend in digital transcending automation and modernization. Our software offering puts us at an advantage of that curve.”
MCI celebrated 270 per cent growth over a two-year period.