Lohit Bhatia, President, Workforce Management at Quess Corp
Staffing solutions company Quess Corp is accelerating its international expansion strategy by building new talent corridors across Japan, Europe and North America, as geopolitical tensions in the West Asia temporarily slow its overseas growth pipeline.The company said while its existing operations in the West Asia remain stable, the recent conflict has delayed the conversion of new business opportunities that it had expected to materialise during the second quarter.“We don’t see an erosion of our business there, but the growth that we were expecting could pause for a couple of months,” Lohit Bhatia, President, Workforce Management at Quess Corp, told businessline. He added that the company expects reconstruction activity, once the geopolitical situation stabilises, to create fresh demand for staffing services. International operations contribute about 20 per cent of Quess’ profit pool, with the West Asia accounting for nearly 35 per cent of that international business.Geographical risksTo diversify geographical risks, Quess is creating new global hiring corridors. Following its recently announced partnership in Japan, the company is in advanced discussions to establish similar partnerships across Europe, the US and Canada. These partnerships will help global companies setting up Global Capability Centres (GCCs) in India access talent, while also enabling Indian skilled professionals to service overseas markets.The company also sees a multi-year opportunity from India’s expanding GCC ecosystem. Quess currently works with around 10 per cent of the country’s more than 2,400 GCCs but believes it can increase this to 30-40 per cent over the next three to four years. The addition of nearly 200-300 new GCCs annually is expected to further expand the addressable market.Domestically, the company expects manufacturing, construction, aerospace and defence to emerge as key growth engines. Aerospace and defence is among Quess’ newest focus sectors, with the company already serving customers in the segment.While general staffing continued to witness broad-based growth during the June quarter, hiring in the BFSI segment remained subdued.According to the company, tighter regulations continue to restrict outsourcing opportunities across banking and financial services. However, it expects opportunities to emerge from NBFCs, fintech companies and home finance players, while any easing of GST-related issues for insurance companies could provide an additional tailwind.more opportunitiesQuess also said artificial intelligence is creating more opportunities than disruption for its business. While demand for traditional software coding skills has softened, hiring for cloud, cybersecurity and AI-related roles continues to grow. Internally, the company is embedding AI across 29 operational tracks through its proprietary AI engine, KaiOS, to improve hiring speed, customer service and operational efficiency rather than reduce headcount.For the first quarter of FY27, Quess reported a 15 per cent year-on-year increase in revenue to ₹4,182 crore, while profit after tax rose 61 per cent to ₹82 crore. During the quarter, headcount stands at 4,82,214.Published on July 30, 2026
