A leading Belfast call centre that has grown from employing less than a half dozen people when it first set up only five years ago is about to add a further 500 staff, taking its employee base to over 1,000.

While a number of the new posts at Gem will be part-time, the company expects a proportion to be converted to full-time posts.

The Belfast-based company is also opening an office in Hungary, employing initially about 80 people.

Managing director Philip Cassidy said revenues have increased by 40% this year.

"Some of it is Play.com, which is one of our major contracts, some of it is Cisco, Expedia and Microsoft so we have a number of different clients out there that require additional capacity," he said.

He said they had also signed up McAfee, the internet security company, and a gaming company.

Mr Cassidy said that in the contact sector there seemed to be a move back to Europe from Indian contact centres.

"I think there will be a place for the Indian contact centre, but what has happened is that everything has gone out there, when there is a particular contact that suits that environment and the more complex type of transactions or contacts really suit the UK market and that's where we're able to grow," he said.

Gem initially focused on blending business process project management methodologies and email management technologies to bring the same efficiencies to email response that were already in existence for the voice channel.

According to the company, this approach alone helped to set it apart from its competition.

(BMcC)

See: www.the-gem.com/careers/