Offshore call centers seem pretty old hat these days. But back in 2000, when Olivier Duha and Frederic Jousset started Paris-based Webhelp, their scheme was downright radical. Scores of French call center companies already existed at the time -- some dating back to the late 1970s -- but they maintained their staffs and operations in France. Why not, the two young entrepreneurs reasoned, set up shop instead in cheaper French-speaking locales such as North Africa? Thus was born Webhelp, which saw its revenues increase more than tenfold over the last three years, to EU61 million ($88 million) in 2006, and expects 56% growth this year, to EU95 million ($137 million). Ranked No. 8 on last year's Europe's 500 Hot Growth report, it grabbed the top spot this time thanks to its surging staff count. Webhelp now employs more than 5,000 people in service centers from Bucharest, Romania, to Rabat, Morocco, and counts among its clients insurance giant AXA, cosmetics maker L'Oreal, FedEx, and Virgin Mobile.
