Growing phone provider's service-centre jobs boost

The Sheffield-based company created 150 new jobs and moved 100 jobs from its outsourced customer contact centre in Durban, South Africa.

Chief executive Jamie Ford said the move would bring the firm's operations under one roof. The firm, which is owned by BT and employs about 500 staff, inherited the call centre in South Africa when it bought rival Brightview in 2007.

"We have grown a lot, particularly in the last 18 months," he said. "The new jobs in Sheffield mean all our customer contact people will be based under one roof, which is good news for the city and our customers, and will contribute to the continued success of Plusnet."

The outgoing regional development agency Yorkshire Forward partly funded the new jobs with a 1.8m grant. The company interviewed more than 400 people for the roles.

Paul Bloomfield, MP for Sheffield Central, said: "These new jobs at Plusnet will be a very welcome and timely boost to our local economy. I congratulate Plusnet for locating these new jobs in Sheffield and hope that the company continues to grow."

The move comes as Plusnet steps up an aggressive marketing strategy with the launch of a 7m national advertising and marketing campaign, which focuses on serving the nation from its Yorkshire base with a "won't be beat on price" promise that if new or existing customers can find a lower price for standalone broadband, they will beat it.

The company hopes the campaign will build on its 400,000 customers.

The adverts, which emphasise the company's heritage, feature Yorkshire icons such as A Yorkshire terrier, teacakes, '80s Sheffield band Heaven 17, and the rolling Yorkshire hills.

"We are growing our customer base," said Mr Ford. "We have doubled our business in the last 18 months to two years so it's an exciting time for us. We want to continue to grow the business as fast as people need the service. We have a very aggressive price point with the lowest price on standalone broadband."

He added: "We are looking to get across that message of price, quality and heritage. We are very much Sheffield and Yorkshire based, although we have customers across the UK, and we want more customers in the region.

"Over the last 18 months, we have been very challenging on price and targeted the lowest prices because in the current climate nobody wants to pay over the odds. Our price promise takes this policy one step further."

The company is currently trialling fibre-optic cable broadband technology, with a view to bringing it to market in the near future.

Mr Ford said: "There is no doubt that it is economically challenging for everyone at the moment. It's also clear that the telecoms market is very competitive but we are really excited about what the next year will bring. We hope that our customer service differentiates us from our competitors and hope that people will see what we are offering, see the savings they can make and join Plusnet. If that happens, the next year will be a year of growth for us."

Plusnet was the winner of the Best Consumer Customer Service award at the 2010 ISPAs, the UK internet industry awards. The company also came joint top of a table of companies for its technical support in a recent survey by uSwitch.

Plusnet was launched in 1997 by Paul Cusack, who later went on to create the hardware retailer, Ebuyer, and Lee Strafford, who led the business through most of its development up to the sale to BT, in January 2007, for 67m.

Creating work and saving energy

A SOUTH Yorkshire firm plans to create 300 jobs as it helps consumers to cut their energy bills.

Green energy company A Shade Greener, has already hired more than 120 people this year. The firm, based in Tankersley, near Rotherham, installs free electricity-generating solar panels on homes.

It also has a sister company, Nationwide Solar, which installs paid-for solar panels on schools, offices and houses to generate greener electricity.

Chief Executive Stewart Davies said the business had grown at an incredible pace. It was created in response to the Government's FIT scheme, which came into effect on

April 1.

Under this scheme, A Shade Greener will be paid at the rate of 41.3p per kilowatt hour, for all the electricity its panels generate – regardless of whether the electricity is used or not.

Mr Davies added: "We are not just paid for the surplus electricity that is fed back into the grid. We are paid for all the electricity generated. This is called a generation tariff, which is paid to us by the power companies. It is not paid out of the Government purse"