100 jobs created in Cork business

CORK company Abtran is to create 100 jobs over the next year, as a result of its expansion plans.

The company, which specialises in the provision of contact centre management, is expected to grow by 30% over the next 12 months, according to its managing director, Michael Fitzgerald.

“Our growth is going to come from our existing clients and we’d expect to grow 30% this year.

“The number of staff employed this year will average 460 to 470 and by this time next year we’ll have added an extra 100 people.”

Mr Fitzgerald said Abtran can use the experience it has gained over its ten years in operation to grow at a time when the economy is contracting.

Abtran is a business process outsourcing firm that was established in 1997. The range of processes that are typically outsourced to Abtran includes sales and customer service, administration processing, claims processing and financial management processing. The company is headquartered in Bishopstown, Cork and has four business sites.

Mr Fitzgerald claims that Abtan is not offering a low cost solution but concentrates instead on processes that are not going to move out of Ireland.

“What we do is very much about customer service — things like if you’re moving house, or have a query on your bill. The importance of local knowledge is so important. It’s all on behalf of our clients and we work with them and share the workload,” he said.

Abtran says that for its corporate clients, outsourcing can mean maximising revenues on a lower cost base and for public sector bodies it can mean freeing up resources to deliver the services that these bodies were established to provide.

Abtran’s client list includes the ESB, VIVAS Health, Sky, Sustainable Energy Ireland, An Post, the HSE and the Financial Regulator.

It also has long standing partnerships with local and central government as well as German, Italian and British governments.