Garlands Call Centres all set for year of growth

Mar 11 2008 by Karen McLauchlan, Evening Gazette

THERE IS A YEAR of expansion on the cards for award-winning Garlands Call Centres, the top-ranked firm in our Tees Valley Business Awards.

The company, which employs more than 3,000 at sites in Hartlepool, Middlesbrough and Stockton, may have just been named the Valley’s best in business, but there’s hardly time to draw breath for boss Chey Garland, with two new bases getting up and running over the next few weeks, creating hundreds of jobs, both here and overseas.

Work is currently under way on Garlands’ new call centre site in South Shields, as well as a new back office processing centre in Cape Town, South Africa.

“We take control of our new South Shields building in April,” she said, “but we already have 100 staff working for us at the site.

“As we win new work, then we’ll increase our staff numbers. The same goes for the Cape Town operation.”

But Ms Garland ruled out any further expansion before next year.

“The plans we have announced gives us the space for growth for the next 18 months.”

While other call centre companies have off-shored their operations, Garlands remains fiercely proud of its Teesside roots. But even it would need to look to other locations, she said.

“We employ more than 3,000 people on Teesside,” she explained, “and are the largest call centre operation on Teesside.

“When you consider the other call centres based here, to expand beyond that level couldn’t be sustained.”

For the full story of this year’s Business Awards winners, see pages 2 and 3.