BP Opens European Business Service Center in Budapest

The prospect of growing the company’s presence in Hungary and the opportunities which Budapest presents as a location have been two important considerations for BP opening its European Business Service Center in the Hungarian capital. We have asked the head of the new Center, Philip Whelan for a short interview.

P.W.: - We chose Budapest and Hungary due to the excellent service industry track record, its position at the heart of Europe and the skills and capabilities of its people. We believe that Budapest, home to a mature Business Service industry, offers a highly skilled and diverse workforce and together we can achieve our goal to build a successful service centre, combining activities currently dispersed across many European locations. As BP has already invested in Hungary through the Lubricants and Aviation businesses, Budapest was not unknown to us.

dteurope.com: What other venue options were considered?

P.W.: - BP conducted a very detailed and long due-diligence process across Europe. We had established criteria to evaluate all of the various options. These criteria included but were not limited to diversity and availability of talent base; maturity of the Business Service industry; demographics and the political and economic stability.

dteurope.com: What is the role of this European Business Service Center? Who are the clients of this Center and what services can they expect from here?

P.W.: Our investment in Budapest is an integral part of BP’s strategy to win in a highly competitive industry. To us, winning sustainably means focusing on safe and reliable operations; simplifying and standardizing our processes; and making more efficient the way we serve our markets and the way we provide support to our customers and BP businesses. The Centre offers Finance, Customer Service and Operational Procurement activities to the Refining and Marketing Division of BP.

dteurope.com: How many people are (and perhaps will later be) employed and what sort of qualifications do they need to possess to work here?

P.W.: BP’s European Business Service Centre will employ over a thousand colleagues in a number of years. Our intention is to create a diverse workplace with strong emphasis on the combination of people skills, technical skills and general business experience. As such, we will have a broad employee base made up with graduates, emerging professionals and mature, experienced people.

dteurope.com: What sort of infrastructure did you need to put in place?

P.W.: Budapest, as a business service centre destination, already offers a significantly modern business infrastructure. Notwithstanding, BP has invested in facilities, technology, and, most importantly, in people.