Amidst recession and job losses, Indian call centre major Firstsource has spread cheer in north-east England by announcing plans to set up a centre in Middlesbrough with 500 new jobs.

The announcement comes soon after the region's biggest contact centre operator, Garlands, collapsed and more than 1,100 workers were made redundant. Firstsource’s decision to move into the region was made after it was promised a 1.9 million pounds grant from regional development agency One North East, secured with help from Newcastle-based corporate finance specialist unw.

Matthew Vallance, managing director of Firstsource, said, "We are delighted that the latest phase of our UK expansion will be located in Middlesbrough which promises to be a highly favourable location for us. Our UK business is continuing to show robust growth and the new Middlesbrough centre will complement our existing UK and international operations."
    
The company, based in Mumbai, has its UK base in London and currently employs almost 2,000 people in Northern Ireland. Firstsource, which set up office in Northern Ireland in 2006, employs 550 people in Belfast. It has 34 call centres worldwide and employs more than 17,000 people across four continents.
    
It specialises in providing outsourced services including contact centre, back-office processing and debt-collection services. It provides help for a range of customers across the financial services, telecom and media, travel and healthcare industries in Europe, Asia and North and South America.

A CALL centre giant has unveiled plans to create 500 North East jobs just weeks after the region's biggest contact centre operator, Garlands, collapsed and more than 1,100 workers were made redundant.

Indian outsourcing company Firstsource Solutions’s decision to open a centre in Middlesbrough has been widely welcomed after Hartlepool-based Garlands went into administration last month after losing two massive contracts.

And the announcement came on the day Barclaycard revealed it was in talks over the possibility of hiving-off the operation of its Stockton call centre, which employs 700 staff, to Firstsource