Further Blow For E-Commerce As Bigsave.com Quits The Isle of Man

Robert Lee, Tax-news.com, London

14 March 2001

Yesterday, we reported that WISeOffshore, an online initiative to provide specialized services and applications for offshore jurisdictions and their financial institutions, had been put on hold in the Isle of Man. Now the island's e-commerce sector has been dealt a further blow with the decision of major UK e-tailer bigsave.com to pull its administration and technology centre out of the island.

Founded in 1999 by businessman Jim Mellon, bigsave.com offices were established in the Isle of Man and London. Last year saw a pan-european roll-out by the company into Germany, with offices also planned for Spain, France and Switzerland.

The decision of bigsave.com to withdraw from the Isle of Man has been confirmed by a company spokesman. He said the bigsave.com administration and technology centre employed around 15 people, who have mostly taken redundancy, and explained that it was logical in the long-run for bigsave.com to move all its operations to London: 'The company did have quite a big administration and technology centre in the Isle of Man, a lot of accounts and technology were run from the Island, but the head office is in London. The historic reason they were in the Island was that the major shareholder, iRegent, has an office in the Island. The intention has always been, at some stage, to move it from the Island to London. The process has been going on for about two months and is virtually complete.'

It is widely believed that the worldwide malaise currently affecting dotcom companies is in part responsible for bigsave.com's decision to quit the Isle of Man. Although obviously disappointed at the news, Manx e-commerce envoy Tim Craine said he understood the decision to centralise operations in London, adding 'It was perhaps unusual to separate the fulfilment side from the administration and technology side.'

He added that the decision should not shake confidence in the Island’s e-commerce strategy. Mr Craine and his team have worked hard to position the Isle of Man as a leading force in the e-commerce arena. Earlier this year, the island appointed a local legal firm to advise the government on its e-commerce strategy, and created a private sector e-commerce consultative committee made up of seven individuals who are recognised as being particularly pro-active in the field of e-commerce.

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