FDI 100

FDI 100: Arvato

By Business & Finance
23 November 2012
arvato FDI 100

As an internationally-networked outsourcing services provider, Arvato has played a pioneering role in billing and payment services.

In September of this year, Arvato Finance demonstrated its continued growth in Ireland by opening new premises in Dublin’s Eastpoint Business Park and by delivering on its pledge to create 150 jobs, two years ahead of schedule.

In Ireland, Arvato Finance is one of four Arvato businesses that incorporate the Irish division of global business company Arvato, employing more than 1,350 people countrywide. Arvato is an internationally networked outsourcing services provider for the private and public sector. It designs and tailors business processes to help customers meet their challenges.

Arvato Finance has played a pioneering role in the development of billing and payment services over the past 16 years, developing customised business process outsourcing (BPO) solutions for the company’s global clients.
Co-ordinated from its Dublin-based centre, Arvato operates a worldwide network of regional hubs to support compliance with local tax, legislative and social-economical requirements and act as best-shore solutions to provide financial and qualitative benefits for clients.

Arvato Finance began operations in Dublin in 1996 to support multinational clients entering the European market. Arvato Ireland also supplies clients with business process outsourcing, an effective strategy for controlling costs, reducing risk, building collaboration, and growing business.

Dublin continues to be a strategic centre of knowledge and innovation for Arvato Finance.

The company has made significant investment into the refurbishment of the 6,000 sq metre premises, which has been re-named The Arvato Building.

It features state-of-the-art office and meeting facilities for 350 employees, and provides sufficient space for future expansion. Arvato’s employees in Dublin work in more than 35 languages. The operation’s multicultural employee base supports Dublin’s position as a key strategic centre for the company’s global network.

Arvato is owned entirely by Bertelsmann and is part of the Bertelsmann multinational media group, which is listed on the German stock exchange. Bertelsmsmann produces, serves and markets media.

The company is split into four main subsidiaries: RTL Group, the European broadcaster; Random House, the world’s largest book-publishing group; Gruner + Jahr, Europe’s biggest magazine publisher; and Arvato.
Bertelsmann has two Irish operations: BMG Rights Management Ireland Limited at St Stephen’s Green, and the four Arvato offices.

Arvato’s various businesses across Dublin have also been involved in numerous community initiatives and recently sponsored Chambers Ireland’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Awards which gives the business community a chance to promote their efforts in CSR and gain recognition for best practice.

In 2011, Arvato won a top prize at the 2012 Repak Recycling Awards for implementing an internal plan to reduce the packaging used to ship a pallet of product by at least 20%.
Through this initiative, it succeeded in reducing packaging by over 40 tonnes and saved many thousands of euro in packaging costs. Arvato’s management structure in Ireland is made up of general managers of each of its operations and top management headed by Andrea Kaminski, President, International Finance and Arvato Ireland.

Kaminski has been head of Arvato’s finance services business in the UK and Ireland since 2005. She is responsible for the international growth of its finance services across the UK and Ireland, US, China, India, Brazil, Philippines, Singapore and Germany.

Matthias Mierisch is chairman and CEO of Arvato UK and Ireland. Mierisch has worked for Bertelsmann and Arvato companies for more than 20 years. As well as leading the growth of the UK and Ireland business, Matthias also oversees Arvato’s UK public sector partnerships and heads up the company’s focus on global BPO. He established a BPO centre of excellence based in Dublin and played a lead role in winning an international outsourcing contract with Microsoft.