Intelling, the Manchester headquartered business service company, plans to open a contact centre in Northern Ireland which it says will create 250 jobs.

The company’s new operations centre will be based in Belfast and 45 of the projected jobs are already in place

Phil Morgan, Intelling's chief executive, said the Northern Ireland centre "marks a major investment" for the company and will play a key role in the development of its business.

Its centres provide integrated online and off line contact services to major telecoms and utilities providers including TalkTalk and O2.

Mr Morgan said: “One of Intelling’s key strengths is our ethos on staff training to drive productivity and grow the business. Our new Belfast centre gives us access to a new talent pool and we plan to invest over £800,000 in skills, including management and leadership development, so that we have the capability required to take advantage of new opportunities.”

He said the company chose the North as a new investment location because of the “availability of talent and cost competitive environment”.

Mr Morgan also paid tribute to the support he had received from Invest NI - who have offered Intelling an employment grant of £750,000 and skills growth support of £247,850.

He said the aim is to have all staff in place by 2018.

The North's Enterprise Minister Jonathan Bell believes the latest investment project is "positive news" for the local economy.

“It creates much needed jobs that offer flexible employment and the opportunity to develop transferable skills.

“The 250 new jobs, to be created over the next three years, will generate £4 million annually in additional salaries and will appeal to a wide range of people including those returning to work, those who have experienced a period of unemployment as well as school leavers,” the Minister said.