Webhelp TSC creates 400 jobs across Central Belt

SCOTLAND’S largest call centre company is to get bigger with 400 jobs being created across the Central Belt.

Nearly three-quarters of the jobs will be in the Glasgow offices of Webhelp TSC, the business formed earlier this year when French group Webhelp bought the TSC operations in a £77 million deal. A further 76 are destined for Larbert – Webhelp TSC’s UK headquarters – and 30 in Kilmarnock.

Chief executive David Turner said the company had also set up its own training academy to promote youth employment.

Many of the posts being created are expected to be filled by younger workers. However, Turner noted that a growing number of applicants were falling just short of passing recruitment tests. Fifty recruits under 24 have already joined the company, with the remainder to be drafted over two years. The initiative is being supported by a £1.5 million regional selective assistance grant.

Webhelp employs more than 6,000 across the UK, about half north of the Border in Dunoon, Glasgow, Greenock, Kilmarnock, Larbert and Rothesay.

Previously owned by Hero Group, the Indian bicycle and motorbike conglomerate, TSC began trading in Rothesay in the mid-1990s with just seven employees. Hero, which paid £40m to take over the business in 2007, sold the business to Web-help in February.

Yesterday’s announcement was welcomed by First Minister Alex Salmond, who described it as “further proof of the attractiveness of Scotland’s workforce to foreign investors”.

Webhelp TSC provides online customer support services in addition to its main telephone-based business. Major clients include broadcaster BSkyB, energy supplier E.ON and mobile firm Vodafone.