Sales and customer service specialists SalesSense International will create more than 100 jobs in an expansion that will see it open a new facility in Dundalk.
The company already has a base in Galway, where it employs more than 100 people, as well as a small office in Dublin. This latest expansion is set to double its Irish workforce by the end of this year.
The news came on a day when management consulting and outsourcing firm Accenture annouced it was adding 250 jobs to its Irish business – 50 of them graduate jobs and the rest new senior roles.
Accenture, which currently employs 1,600 people in Ireland, said its recruitment drive was focused primarily on professionals working in the technology and digital areas and with experience across a number of sectors including financial services, communications, media and food and agriculture.
Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation Richard Bruton and Minister for Business and Employment Ged Nash will officially announce details of the new SalesSense jobs on Thursday with company chief executive Ger Teahon.
The company says it offers Europe’s first “fully cloud-based customer engagement centre” and its website says it uses its “ground-breaking cloud technology and our unique philosophy on customer satisfaction to provide end-to-end sales solutions that include sales management and business development”.
SalesSense International curently works with companies including Vodafone and Bord Gáis.
Speaking in the Dundalk Democrat newspaper, Mr Teahon said the company had "looked at a number of sites North and South before choosing Dundalk as a location. The proximity to Dublin and Belfast airports, the infrastructure and, especially, Dundalk Institute of Technoloty [DKIT]were major factors."
Mr Nash, a Deputy for Louth, said, the jobs “underline just how successful the area has been in attracting and retaining large companies”.
“It is particularly heartening to see an existing company expand its workforce. This is a sure sign of confidence in our hard-won economic recovery. We are working hard as a Government to compete for these investments.”
Local Fine Gael TD Peter Fitzpatrick, said it was fantastic news for the county "which is the envy of the country because now 1 in 10 jobs created by foreign direct investment is coming to Louth, and especially Dundalk".
He credited Dundalk’s location midway between Dublin and Belfast with its success in securing job investment, and said “over 100 jobs will be created by SalesSense. Graduates of DkIT will be able to apply; it is a town that is ready made for IT and computer based industries.”
Paddy Malone from Dundalk Chamber of Commerce said , Dundalk was developing a cluster of computer-related services that also includes Prometric, eBay and PayPal.
He cautioned that Dundalk’s unemployment rate “is still higher than the national average” , and said the new jobs would require skilled staff.
The formal announcement will be made at the company’s premises in the Finnabair industrial estate in Dundalk Thursday morning.
