Vitel call centre in Glasgow closes with debts of £890,000

A CALL centre in Glasgow which relaunched in 2014 with the promise of creating up to 140 jobs has gone into liquidation with debts estimated at £890,000.

The Vitel call centre, which operated out of Waterloo Street, was employing fewer than 10 staff when it closed for business at the end of December. Shareholders in the company decided on Friday to enter into voluntary liquidation.

Liquidator Scott McGregor of Glasgow-based Grainger Corporate Rescue & Recovery told The Herald that an investigation into the causes of the company’s collapse would get underway this week.

The company had for some time been struggling with poor revenues and had recently been unsuccessful in winning contracts that might have allowed it to survive, Mr McGregor said.

The company is believed to have around 30 creditors, including the HMRC. Once remaining assets have been used to repay a floating charge to the company’s bank, the chances of other creditors being repaid were “minimal”, Mr McGregor warned.

The call centre was operated by Bellcom Worldwide until 2014 when it became part of Neptis Group, whose CEO Joe Costello – formerly MD of the Glasgow-based Essentia Group – increased the call centre’s workforce from 50 to 60.

Atthetimeoftheacquisition Vitel said that new contracts with water and waste services companies, insurance, business improvement and energy efficiency industries would result in a workforce of over 200 by early 2015.

The Neptis Group included the public relations firm Lucid PR, Events and Marketing. Mr Costello’s vision was to build a one-stop-shop service of business advice, marketing and PR expertise and multilingual sales and customer services facilities to clients.

Mr Costello said in 2014 that he wanted to distance Vitel from the sweatshop and employee churn culture of many call centres by offering staff proper training and a promotion and bonus structure to keep workers long-term. The strategy included a pledge to pay even the most junior staff the Glasgow Living Wage.

In 2014 the company received £1,200 from Scottish Enterprise to support its export plans.