'Call centres can still grow'

Jan 10 2008 By Jez Davison, Evening Gazette

TEES Valley call centre operators have refuted suggestions that the local industry has reached saturation point.

Last year Middlesbrough entrepreneur Chey Garland announced plans to open a new operation in South Africa - the country positioning itself as the industry’s next “Bangalore,” with attractive inward investment sweeteners on offer to operators.

A fierce advocate for the area, Ms Garland admitted she had to look beyond her North-east heartland to expand her business, but others believe the Tees Valley offers ample opportunity for further development.

Ms Garland, whose company employs more than 3,200 people in Stockton, Middlesbrough and Hartlepool, said: “I don’t believe in clusters. It is difficult when you get lots of call centres together all vying for the same staff.”

However, Paul Shepherd, manager of the management support team at Churchill Insurance call centre in Teesdale, insists local opportunities in the sector are not exhausted.

“Potentially, if operators keep opening call centres, we will get market saturation, but we have not yet reached this point,” he said.

Last official figures for the industry from One NorthEast put employment in the sector at 7,500 people in 2004 - or 3% of the Tees Valley workforce, but the number is thought to have more than doubled.

Gary Watson of recruitment firm New Group is not alone in believing call centres are finding it increasingly hard to recruit, but Mr Shepherd said: “We have had no problem finding staff with the right skills.”

Colin Mackay, director of quality and standards at the Customer Contact Association (CCA), which has more than 60 members on Teesside, believes the increase in call centre “clusters” demonstrated healthy competition.

He said: “Market saturation would be reflected in recruitment difficulties or increased churn, although we have no evidence of it happening in the wider regional areas.

“However, it may be possible to identify specific situations in which co-located centres compete for the same work forces. That would mean less saturation and more competition within a small geographic area.”