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Astron in Hays BPO acquisition

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Astron has become a major player in the UK transactional print market and its turnover is set to rise to 180m with its acquisition of several of Hays Business Process Outsourcing's operations.

The Huntingdon-based print management and business services group has bought billing, database management, transaction processing and call centre businesses in the UK, Poland, India and Sri Lanka.

The acquisition will take its total headcount to 3,400, and will give it access to a huge call centre in Leicester.

Hays BPOs Transaction Processing division will become Astron BPO, while the Document Technologies and Marketing Technologies businesses will become Astron Document Services.

This was the next logical step for us, said Astron chief executive David Mitchell. These businesses were not core to the business of Hays, but they will be core to us. Print management has moved on from the early days. We've now got customers looking for far more integrated services rather than just print or print management."

The acquisition brings Astron new customers, including Centrica, Orange and Experian.

The news comes a week after it announced a new contract win in Ireland and reported an improved operating profit for 2002 (PrintWeek, 17 July).

Mitchell has in the past stated that his ambition is to grow Astron to a group with sales of 250m.

Edotech is number one in the UK transactional print market.