Outsourcing firm to create 336 Belfast jobs

OUTSOURCING COMPANY Capita is planning to create 336 jobs in Belfast through a major expansion of its life and pensions division in the North.

Capita, which has been based at Clarendon Dock in the north of the city for almost five years, provides back-office support and customer relationship services to global companies such as Prudential, MetLife and Aviva.

Capita life and pensions operations director Anne Marie McGoldrick said the company was forecasting “significant sales growth” for its Belfast operation over the next three years.

“We will need to quadruple our employee numbers,” she said.

Ms McGoldrick said the company had enjoyed a “very positive experience” in Belfast and the combination of support from government agencies such as Invest NI and the availability of staff had made the expansion a “very attractive and viable strategy”.

Capita has been offered financial support of more than £1 million (€1.15 million) from Invest NI towards the cost of its expansion.

The finance will be made available through Invest NI’s new Short-Term Employment Scheme. The scheme aims to create 4,000 jobs by 2014 and includes a range of temporary measures to support individuals starting a new business as well as employment support for established businesses.

The North’s Minister of Enterprise, Arlene Foster, said the jobs were “very welcome in the current economic climate”.

“The salaries generated will eventually contribute over £5 million a year to the Northern Ireland economy,” she added.

Meanwhile, Titanic Belfast, the visitor attraction scheduled to open next spring, has confirmed that Dublin-based Fitzers Catering has won the contract to provide hospitality services for the building. The contract will support up to 22 full-time and more than 150 part-time hospitality jobs.