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Major jobs blow for the region

OVER 1,000 staff at a North East call centre operator were made redundant yesterday as the company fell into administration.

Garland Call Centres, which has offices in Hartlepool Marina, Middlesbrough and South Shields, has been pushed out of business by what administrators described as the termination of key contracts.

The one-time £50m-a-year business employed 1,158 people - 178 based in South Shields, 621 in Hartlepool and 359 in Middlesbrough.

A total of 1,088 staff were expected to lose their jobs.

The announcement was made to staff on Monday yesterday afternoon over the in-house radio system by chief executive Chey Garland.

A statement from administrators PriceWaterhouseCoopers LLP (PwC) said one contract had been retained by Garlands.

It said a small number of staff, believed to be about 70 employees, would continue to work for this and assist with the closure of the business.

Nick Reed, director and joint administrator at PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, said: “Garlands Call Centres has experienced very challenging trading conditions and more recently received notice from a number of key clients of their intention to move their customer service work.

“The Garlands’ board were unable to identify a viable way forward given the significant deterioration in contract work and high infrastructure costs.

“As such, they were left with no option than to appoint administrators.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .