Late last year Glasgow call centre specialist Kura secured a 34,201 sq ft letting at Caspian House, Atlantic Park, in Sefton, close to Switch Island, with Royal London Asset Management. Tony McDonough reports.

A Merseyside new call centre for energy giant Scottish Power goes live this weekend, creating 200 new jobs – with a further 200 possible in the future.

Late last year Glasgow call centre specialist Kura secured a 34,201 sq ft letting at Caspian House, Atlantic Park, in Sefton, close to Switch Island, with Royal London Asset Management.

The letting was secured after Kura was selected as a strategic partner of Scottish Power for the next five years to become the utility giant’s largest outsource customer services provider.

Following the highly competitive tender process which started in January 2016, Kura will provide customer services in the UK from April 1.

The contract meet Scottish Power’s promise of delivering all call handling services from UK-based contact centres.

When the new centre opens at Atlantic Park on Saturday, it will house 200 contact centre advisors, leaving an additional 200 seats available for Kura’s growth plans.

Brian Bannatyne, chief executive of Kura, said: “Sefton offers a fantastic platform for our expansion within the UK and will create new jobs for those in the area.

“At Kura we’re out to build a very different business in our industry, one that is focused on its people and their development.

“Our philosophy is to help people be the best they can be and our vision is to be recognised across all organisations as unrivalled in developing people.

“Caspian House will be a flagship site, creating the right learning environment for the culture we are building. “

Mark Basnett, managing director of the Liverpool City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, added: “Working alongside Sefton Council and their Invest Sefton team, we’ve supported Kura’s decision-making process every step of the way, supplying information and advice about demographics, skills and lifestyle.

“As well as creating new job opportunities, this move again underlines that Liverpool city region is a brilliant location to base business process outsourcing centres.”