Fexco centre plans to create 300 jobs

A TOWN that has suffered seriously from unemployment received a major boost yesterday with the opening of an enterprise with the potential to create up to 300 jobs.

Leading financial services company Fexco opened a purpose-built, contact centre in Caherciveen, Co Kerry, involving an investment of 5.6m. Tourism Minister John O’Donoghue, who lives in Caherciveen, performed the official opening and said it was an occasion of major significance to the area.

“Fexco has a tremendous track record in delivering what it sets out to do and I’ve every confidence it will make a major contribution to the economy here well into the future,” he said. Seventy people are already employed at the centre and there are plans to expand the workforce to more than 200 by the end of next year. Fexco chairman Brian McCarthy said there was a potential to provide 300 jobs in the centre, which is a located in a converted sock factory. He also said there was no shortage of labour in the area.

“Our new centre will cater not only for the continued international expansion of our own various businesses, but will also give us the technology and capacity to attract value-added customer service business from major corporates for whom outsourcing is increasingly becoming a solution,” he stated.

“While this development today is primarily a voice centre, our intention is to move very quickly to phase two which will see the development of a full multi-media contact centre operation incorporating web collaboration/textchat, e-mail management and other services.”

Among the guests at the opening were Charlie Fote, chairman and chief executive of First Data Corporation, and several of his senior management team. US-based First Data, the world’s leading credit card and payment processor, is a 25% shareholder in Fexco. Fexco is one of Ireland’s top financial services companies, employing over 800 people at its corporate headquarters in Killorglin, Co Kerry, and at offices in London, Edinburgh, Madrid, Malta and Dubai.

The company provides a comprehensive range of business-to-business and consumer financial services, including multi-currency credit card processing, dynamic currency conversion, tax reclaim, international payments, tourism services, prize bond management and stockbroking. In addition to its bureau de change business, the company is the exclusive provider of Western Union money transfer services in Ireland, Britain, Spain, and Malta.