Quinn Direct promises 'substantial recruitment" for new Navan call centre

Quinn Direct general manager Colin Morgan has confirmed that the company is due to open its new headquarters in Navan in June. Construction work is almost completed on the 7,000sq metres call centre building at the IDA Business and Technology Park at Johnstown, Navan, and internal work on the premises is well underway. It is expected that the huge building will be ready for occupation in June. Quinn Direct has already established a temporary office in Kells while it was awaiting the completion of the Navan office complex. Initially the company employed 50 staff in the premises and this has been steadily built up since then to 200. These staff members will be moving to the new headquarters when it opens in Navan in the summer. Mr Morgan said the company had already been recruiting for the temporary office on an ongoing basis and the 200 staff would be moving to Navan when the offices open. The Navan headquarters have been designed to hold 600 to 700 staff members and Mr Morgan said the company will be substantially increasing their workforce over the coming years. Mr Morgan said there is some recruitment ongoing and pointed out that they had steadily built up to 200 staff in Kells rather than have a huge surge when they open the Navan office. When asked about the current economic climate and if it will impact on the company"s plans, Mr Morgan said the company was still going to open its offices in Navan and that, over the long term, they would be recruiting substantially in Meath. Staff are employed in a variety of positions, including claims handling, sales, customer services and credit control. Quinn Direct announced its plans to create 600 jobs in Navan in the summer of 2006 but the project was delayed by several months due to a planning appeal. While Meath County Council granted permission for the two-storey 7,000sq m call centre and 500 parking spaces on the eight-acre site, this decision was appealed to Bord Pleanala by a local resident. Bord Plenala subsequently upheld the granting of permission for the development, subject to conditions, in July 2007 and work has been ongoing since then. The delay in the construction of the building led Quinn Direct to opening a temporary office in the Kells Enterprise Centre while awaiting completion of the Navan offices.