By Dave Lord

SCOTTISH AND Southern Energy (SSE) is set for major expansion after it stepped in to save the Goldfish call centre at Cumbernauld.

Closure of the centre and the loss of its 800 jobs was set to devastate the town. The rescue package proposed by the Perth company should see those positions retained and could even lead to the creation of 200 jobs.

SSE yesterday confirmed they had entered into an agreement with Barclaycard—who purchased Goldfish in March for £35 million—to buy the site.

It is understood that jobs will initially be offered to the 800 employees at the site, subject to re-training.

The expectation is that the site capacity of 1000 will be reached within the next two years.

The news comes four weeks after Barclaycard announced proposals to close the Cumbernauld site by the end of the year.

At the time, Barclaycard promised to explore all options to preserve jobs in the town but there was huge consternation and uncertainty.

Relieved employees were yesterday told that an agreement had been reached for SSE to purchase the centre later this year.

SSE is the UK’s second largest supplier of electricity and gas, with around 8.5 million customers.

During 2007/08 the company gained 700,000 new customers and the Cumbernauld centre will complement its customer service operations in Perth, Cardiff, Basingstoke and Portsmouth.

It will take the total number of people employed by SSE in Scotland to almost 5000.

SSE chief executive Ian Marchant said, “I am very pleased to have reached this agreement so quickly and appreciate Barclaycard’s and the Scottish Government’s commitment to speedily secure job opportunities at Cumbernauld.

“The acquisition of the site provides us with the capacity to expand our customer service operations and recruit many new skilled people at a time when our business has achieved significant growth and is continuing to expand.

“It will relieve some of the pressures that would otherwise have been felt at our existing sites and gives us a new geographic area from which to attract people to the SSE team.”

Perth MSP Roseanna Cunningham heaped praise on the Perth firm and said the move secured SSE’s position as a major player in Scotland’s economic success.

“I was delighted to hear that Scottish and Southern Energy have been able to save these jobs,” she told The Courier.

“This represents a further expansion of the Perth company’s activities, strengthening its position as a major contributor to the Scottish economy.”

Barclaycard chief executive Antony Jenkins said, “We have said throughout that we were going to do all we could to preserve local jobs.

“We have been in discussions with Scottish and Southern Energy, the Scottish Government and its agencies, and I am delighted that we have reached this agreement in principle which is subject to final contracts.

“We will maintain our ongoing consultation and dialogue with our staff...but this effectively means that—subject to retraining—800 of our colleagues will have the opportunity to have jobs with SSE.”

Employees were told about the news in meetings at the Cumbernauld site yesterday morning.

No further financial details regarding the deal were disclosed.