THE loss of 250 white collar jobs is indeed a ‘devastating blow’ to Accrington.
Add to that the announcement of the closure of two of the area’s largest furniture stores in Blackburn and Burnley, and it’s clear that yesterday was a bad day for employment in East Lancashire.
US-based calls outsourcing firm Sitel’s decision to shut its calls centre appears to have been the result of travel firm Expedia moving operations to Bangalore in India.
Workers said they were told it was a “financial decision”.
But it’s a decision in sharp contrast to that of New Call Telecom. They recently did the opposite and announced relocation of their calls centre from Mumbai to Simonstone.
The highly successful Daisy Group have continued to expand and recruit for their Pendle base without going abroad.
New Call said that although wage costs were higher in Simonstone, rapidly-rising real estate prices in India and the problem of having a centre so far away tipped the balance towards East Lancashire.
Yesterday’s decision may prove to be a wrong one for the firm as well as for Accrington.
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