300 NEW JOBS FOR NEWPORT
Three hundred jobs will be created starting from this summer at a new contact centre in Newport.
The centre will be dedicated to a new funeral planning and wills service run by customer service business Carpeo Business Process Outsourcing.
The new division, Carpeo Estates Planning, is aimed at providing affordable funeral planning and wills processes to people across the UK.
Carpeo currently employs 250 people in Swindon, but has chosen to open this new operation at Caerleon House, at Cleppa Park in Duffryn.
A location in Teeside was under consideration, but funding support from the Welsh Government helped secure the investment for Wales.
The contact centre is due to open in June and the business is currently recruiting the first batch of 24 employees at all levels for its launch date, rising to 60 by end of the year and 300 by 2022.
Carpeo Estate Planning’s chief executive officer Mike Minahan said: “Having sat on the board of the Welsh Contact Centre Forum for the past 15 years, I know that Wales has a range of competitive advantages to offer contact centre businesses.
“The quality of people available and their experience of working in a regulated services market is a huge pull.
“On the ofter side, the Welsh accent is sympathetic and consoling – particularly important in our market.
“We’re hugely proud to be bringing these well-paid roles and good employment opportunities to Newport. As with any operation, we’ll be growing numbers in stages and we’d love to hear from suitably qualified people with a passion for customer service to join our team.”
Staff at the contact centre will earn a basic £22,000 with the opportunity to earn an additional £7,500 bonus per year.
They will be dealing with inquiries for the new subscription-based Carpeo Estate Planning service, which gives access to affordable wills and funeral planning products for a monthly fee.
Sun Life’s Cost of Dying report 2016 revealed that the rise in the price of funerals outstrips inflation, wages and pensions, with the average funeral coming in at £3,897 and the cost of dying at £8,802 per person.
With approximately 60% of UK adults without a legal will, in 2015 over a quarter of a million UK families had to go through probate court following the death of a family member.
Special software will be used to identify people for whom these products and services would be particularly relevant and who would have had recent experience of the difficulties of executing an intestate estate. A potential market of three million people has been identified.
Sandra Busby, managing director of the Welsh Contact Centre Forum, said: “Carpeo Estate Planning’s announcement is further evidence of the attraction of Wales as a home for some of the most innovative contact centre businesses around.
“Our communities need jobs like the ones Carpeo Estate Planning has created and contact centre operations across Wales contribute £650m per annum to the economy. We’re an industry that anchors many of Wales’ blue-chip organisations to the country and has arguably matured into one of Wales’ most important.”
The new business will operate through a wholly owned subsidiary, Slowhit FS Limited, a business process outsourcing company that supports major blue-chips in sales and service activities in their front and back offices, data inputting and data validation.
Since its establishment in 2009, the business has worked with brands such as Jamie’s Italian, the RAC, Scottish Power, Thames Water and Pearson, as well as retail and distribution companies such as Amazon, Asda, Tesco and O2.
By the end of its 2017 financial year in May, Carpeo’s turnover will have grown to £9.4m and its plans foresee growth to £20m over the next four years, by expanding its current Swindon-based operation into Wales and potentially other areas of the UK.
Carpeo Estate Planning has partnered with Hugh James, the UK’s largest provider of will-writing services, funeral plan provider Golden Leaves and professional advisory firm Broomfield & Alexander.
Economy Secretary Ken Skates said: “This is Carpeo’s first investment in Wales and I am delighted the company is joining a growing and vibrant sector that employs more than 30,000 people in over 200 centres in Wales.
“Carpeo has ambitious growth plans, with the potential for further future investment in Wales, and I welcome their plan to open this new business in Newport that will create a range of jobs and training opportunities for local people.”