In April 2013, the British company Ascend Capital, which owns a global network of call centers in Europe and Africa, announced that it would invest in Macedonia.
The company was promoted by the Director of Agency for Foreign Investments, Visar Fida, together with the Managing Director and one of the two owners of the company in Macedonia, Justin Drummond.
Since then Ascend Capital has been operating in Skopje under the name of Active Group, registered for wholesale of chemical products.
This is so because it was announced that Ascend Capital would open a call center for direct marketing and regional sales of eco-friendly cleaners, an investment worth several hundred thousand euros.
"In a period of 12 to 18 months, the British company plans to employ 100 to 150 young Macedonians with knowledge of regional languages. In addition to generating employment, which is the greatest benefit for the country, the investment will also contribute to the improvement of the trade balance with the countries in the region", said the Agency Director, Visar Fida.
The co-owner of the company, Justin Drummond said that this initial investment would be an excellent platform for the expansion of their investing activities in Macedonia and announced that the company was considering investing in the hospitality industry, real estate industry and mineral resources.
According to the British website of Ascend Capital, Drummond has a prestigious resume. He is a man with 15 years of experience in investing and creating successful companies in the field of technology and telecommunications. One of his more successful companies is Media Corp – a company he founded with an initial capital of 200,000 pounds. In only four years, the company was worth 50 million.
However, thirty months after the announcement of the investment, at the end of 2015, the Skopje -based company Ascend Capital had only six employees, just as the year before, whereas its noncurrent assets amounted to only 32,000 euros.
In 2016 this company had no employees.