Global expansion to boost TSL staff levels

CARLOW-BASED TSL Marketing is planning significant growth for the coming year on the back of strong tech markets in central Europe and the Far East.

TSL opened offices in Budapest last May and Warsaw this week, bringing its worldwide presence to nine locations – the Carlow headquarters, Dublin, Pune in India, Boston, Maryland and San Jose in the US and Montreal in Canada. Next year it plans new offices for Singapore and Beijing.

Based on anticipated business in the coming year, TSL managing director Mike Kelly expects his employee number to increase substantially. “We’re planning for at least 30 per cent growth,” he says. “By this time next year we expect to have just over 300 people. Most of the jobs will be based outside Ireland – in central Europe, Asia-Pacific and the Middle East.”

Founded in 1999 by former Iona Technologies executive Kelly and David English, TSL has broadened its focus to include sales process consulting, marketing workshops, micro-site development, direct marketing and event promotion.

A company’s global sales presence is often achieved through complex partnerships with third-party resellers and agencies. TSL owes its existence to the need for those relationships to be managed close to the customer.

“The big selling point for us is where there are multimillion-dollar [marketing] campaigns that are designed in the US to be launched globally, we’re able to bring a local flavour,” Kelly says. “Someone in Latvia doesn’t want a US-centric campaign forced on them.”

The privately held company will fund the expansion through its own revenues. Last year TSL repaid the Business Expansion Scheme investment it received in 2002, although Enterprise Ireland remains involved.

After strong initial growth, TSL was hit by the dotcom crash and some difficult years shaped its approach to business. “Things are much more tempered,” Kelly says. “If we need to retrench again, we’re structured to do that.

“If we can keep to plan and get over 300 employees, great, but I’d rather have 200 people and a viable company. The market changes fast, there’s no point killing your business trying to do it.”