The new entity, which will be based at City Point on Chester Road, will be charged with the mammoth task of mapping the details of every registered firm in the country – including such data as staff numbers, manager names and contact details. It is expected that this will be done via some 2.5million phone calls a year.

To achieve this Nebraska based InfoUSA has set aside a “very significant investment” and charged subsidiary firm ORC International, also based at City Point, to handle most of the hiring and infrastructure set-up.

A spokesperson from ORC (London) was, however, quick to stress that the two companies would operate as separate entities and take different floors of the Old Trafford office block.

“We’re there to support the set-up of InfoUK and there will be some synergies – such as IT support and shared servers etc – but other than that the firms are completely separate and InfoUK is a new, standalone business.”

Business the infoUSA way

The spokesperson stated that at present there were only two members of staff already working on the project (a database manager and support manager), but that 50 was the headcount InfoUSA chiefs had in mind and this would be achieved “really pretty quickly” as soon as the office was fitted out and functional.

They added: “The key appointment is the MD and we’ll be in a position to announce that very soon. I can’t tell you any names, but we’re down to a shortlist of two and one has been identified as the preferred candidate. He’s a pretty well known figure in the industry and his references demonstrate his pedigree.”

Apparently the negotiations have reached contract signing stage and an announcement will be made in due course. How-Do will keep you informed.

www.infousa.com

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