Starting up outsourcing: new logistics firm has Memphis base, India plan for gaining outsourced logistics business.(Logistics & Technology)

Backed by a large private equity group ill India, newly formed Aegis InterWorld is opening a logistics operation out of Memphis, Tenn., aimed at staking a claim to India's infant logistics outsourcing market.

"This is an area that has not been well served and that's why we have identified this as a high growth area," said Aegis CEO Mark Skoda. The company plans to announce a couple acquisitions in late August to round out its services.

Outsourcing manufacturing to India hasn't been nearly as successful as to China or other Asian countries in part because of how hard it is to start a business in India, Skoda said. But the world market for business process outsourcing to support these manufacturers will grow 12 percent a year over the next five years, according to research firm IDC, and is expected to reach $276.5 billion.

Aegis believes support from the $4.4 billion Essar Group, one of India's few business process outsourcers with logistics expertise, will help the start-up overcome India's infrastructure and other challenges that frustrate outsourced manufacturers.

Skoda has more than 30 years' supply chain management ...