Outsourcing provider Ibex Ltd closed two of its four Jamaican delivery centres and cut 1,405 workstations from the island during the financial year to June, stripping out 37 per cent of its Jamaican capacity, filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission show.
The Nasdaq-listed outsourcing group ended the year with two Jamaican centres and 2,405 workstations, down from four centres and 3,810 workstations a year earlier. Jamaica now ranks behind Nicaragua in the company’s delivery network, having been its largest nearshore site a year ago.
“We also continue to realise cost savings as we geographically optimise our delivery centres in higher cost regions,” Ibex said in its annual report, filed on September 10. “We are in the process of building additional capacity in our offshore regions.”
Jamaica accounted for the entire reduction in sites: centre counts in Nicaragua and Honduras held steady, while the Philippines went from nine sites to 10 and Pakistan from 10 to 11.
AI effect
The company points to client cost pressure rather than weak demand. Some clients “have increased their focus on cost reduction, resulting in decisions to shift work from onshore sites to offshore sites”, it said, adding that moving work out of higher-cost locations lifts margins even as it lowers the price clients pay.
On artificial intelligence (AI), Ibex warned in its risk disclosures that certain third-party AI tools could “automate or reduce demand for some of our more standardised or lower-complexity service offerings”. It said early deployment may cut revenue from traditional agent work, but that it expects to win higher-margin AI-enabled business in return.
Ibex still lists Jamaica among four international operations on which its business is “heavily dependent”, alongside the Philippines, Pakistan and Nicaragua, and runs one of three customer-acquisition centres of excellence there. Utilisation of its remaining nearshore capacity improved to 83 per cent from 64 per cent as fewer seats carried a similar volume of work.
Jamaica assets
Property and equipment in Jamaica dropped 56 per cent to US$2.41 million from US$5.45 million, and is down 72 per cent from US$8.66 million two years ago. Jamaica was the only location where the asset base shrank. Over the same year, Philippine assets rose 55 per cent to US$14.2 million, Pakistani assets 52 per cent to US$14.9 million and United States assets 9 per cent.
Jamaican dollars accounted for 8.9 per cent of group salaries and benefits in fiscal 2026, down from 12.3 per cent. The Pakistani rupee share rose to 11.6 per cent from 9.7 per cent. Headcount across the nearshore region fell to about 7,100 from 7,500, while offshore headcount rose by roughly 1,700.
Ibex booked US$1.2 million in severance “related to work transferring from nearshore to offshore delivery centres”, and a US$700,000 net loss on lease terminations tied to the two closures.
The cuts came in a record year for the group. Revenue rose 15.4 per cent to US$644.1 million and net income climbed 25.7 per cent to US$46.3 million.
“Ibex delivered another record-breaking quarter,” chief executive officer Bob Dechant said, describing fiscal 2026 as a transformational step forward as Ibex defined a new era of BPO, one powered by AI agents.
Revenue from the nearshore region, which Ibex defines as Jamaica, Nicaragua and Honduras, rose 5.2 per cent to US$147.2 million, the slowest growth of its three delivery regions. Offshore revenue reached US$327.3 million and onshore United States revenue, US$169.6 million.
business@gleanerjm.com
