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The creation of 840 new jobs has been announced by the government in the past week, following an announcement by the Tanaiste for 190 more in Cork.
With the support of the IDA, Starwood Hotels will create 190 jobs in Cork at its existing customer contact centre. When all the new positions have been filled, the US company will employ almost 450 at its Cork facility by the end of 2004.
Bringing in USD108 million in net income and USD2.33 billion in revenues for the six months to June 2002, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide is one of the world's biggest hotel and leisure companies. Its brand names include St Regis, The Luxury Collection, Sheraton, Westin, W and Four Points by Sheraton, and the company employs 115,000 globally.
The company's new jobs in Cork will be far more than simply call centre jobs, spokespeople for the IDA and Starwood stressed. In fact, 75 percent of the new employees will be able to speak a second or third language, as the centre handles calls for Latin America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Moreover, the new employees, who are already being recruited, must be equipped to handle Internet and e-mail based queries, and employment at the contact centre will include weeks of training for new recruits, explained Caroline Cooney-Hurrell, the centre's director. Indeed, through its e-communications group, the facility will process almost half of Starwood's e-mail and Web site enquiries.
Cooney-Hurrell also told ElectricNews.Net that the existing Cork facility compares favourably with similar Starwood contact centres in the US, both in terms of financial performance and efficiency. She said that the business did not expect any difficulties in recruiting the new workers.
Meanwhile, Tanaiste Mary Harney beamed at the prospect of more Irish jobs, following a spate of new announcements in recent days that will see five companies, including Starwood, increase headcount figures by almost 850 in total. "The projects have one thing in common, in that they will provide high quality employment in line with government policy and IDA strategy of bringing added value investment into Ireland," said Harney. "In a difficult global environment Ireland is continuing to prove attractive to foreign investment."
Last week, computer services and software firm NetIQ Corporation announced the creation of 180 new jobs in the Republic over six years, while Symantec Corporation, Quantum Corporation and Servier Industries announced the creation of 470 jobs between them a few days earlier.
The expansion at Starwood will increase the centre's capacity, allowing it to handle 5.6 million enquires per annum by 2004, in line with the company's anticipated growth. It is worth noting, however, that on a global level Starwood saw revenues dip 7 percent in the first six months, and net income fell off a massive 36 percent, as business travellers saw their travel budgets slashed in the face of the fragile economy.
Starwood purchased its customer contact centre in Cork in 1998 from the ITT Sheraton.
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