RICHMOND - Governor Mark R. Warner today announced that Global Contact Services is investing $1 million to locate a call center facility in the Town of Saltville. The call center, which will be located in a former Piggly Wiggly building at 345 Palmer Avenue, will create 200 new jobs for residents of Southwest Virginia. Virginia successfully competed with North Carolina, South Carolina, and West Virginia for the project.
“Global Contact Services’ decision to expand in Saltville demonstrates the company’s appreciation of our Southwest Virginia workforce,” said Governor Warner. “The project does another thing I think is vital for our rural communities: it brings new skilled jobs to a renovated downtown location. Communities thrive when support services grow up around workplaces and create an environment where new companies want to locate.”
Global Contact Services LLC (GCS) was formed in 2000 to create a higher competency call center company to provide the outsourced industry with professional call center representative presentations, client services, and quality information technology services. GCS offers outbound and inbound acquisitions, inbound customer care, and full customer relations management. GCS also operates a facility in Pulaski County.
Bob Lynch, a member of the GCS Board of Directors and Manager of Expansion, said, “I chose Saltville over other sites located in Virginia, North Carolina and West Virginia primarily because of the workforce. Employees from our Human Resources Department interviewed more than 40 prospective employees and felt that the quality of the group was outstanding. Our long-term success depends on the quality of our workforce and we liked what we saw.”
The Virginia Economic Development Partnership, Smyth County, and the Town of Saltville assisted the company with its decision to expand. The Virginia Tobacco Indemnification and Community Revitalization Commission helped to close the deal by approving a $200,000 grant through the Tobacco Region Opportunity Fund. The company is eligible to receive tax credits from the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development because it is locating in an enterprise zone. The Virginia Department of Business Assistance will provide training through its Workforce Services Program.
“Earlier this year, Saltville began working to attract technology-based industries to the town in an effort to diversify the economy and develop a more career-oriented workforce,” said Saltville Mayor Jeff Campbell. “GCS’s new location in a vacant building in downtown Saltville also will contribute to our new downtown revitalization project. After a decade of plant closing announcements and downsizing, this announcement represents the beginning of Saltville’s economic recovery.”