Churchill to open Teeside call centre

NEWS Churchill Insurance has announced it will create 250 jobs on Teeside as it expands its sales and customer service operations with a state-of-the-art call centre. A spokeswoman for the direct insurer said the "vast majority" of jobs at the Teesdale Business Park site will relate to the call centre. Churchill already employs close to 600 staff in telesales and other call centre-related roles out of a total workforce of 1,300 at its London headquarters. The news comes as a welcome boost for the Northeast of England after the region's economic well-being was shattered by announcements that several high-tech businesses are to leave the area, laying off hundreds of staff in the process. Both Fujitsu and Siemens are to close factories in the region, although the UK government claims it is too soon to say another company won't step in to buy Siemens' chip facility. Churchill said it was attracted to the area because of the quality of the workforce, and help from the regional development agency. Recruitment begins immediately.