Last updated 11:59, Wednesday, 23 July 2008

A BARROW call centre where staff can earn up to £60,000 a year has been bought by communications giant BT in a £20m deal.

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STAFF: Workers at Ufindus

Now 20 new jobs are expected to be created over the next year at Ufindus, previously run by Iomart, in College House, Howard Street, where 30 staff already work.

Ufindus provides internet services like creating and running websites for small and medium-sized firms.

BT said the deal included its headquarters in Lancaster and other offices in Blackpool, Chorley and Huddersfield.

The move by BT will bring its call centre workforce in Barrow to around 100, because it employs around 70 people at its 118 500 Directory Inquiries centre in the telephone exchange next to Barrow rail station.

BT spokeswoman Emma Tennant said: “The new acquisition is an online business, but will be part of our directories portfolio doing different things to the Abbey Road site, but complementing as all will sit within the same BT department.

“Ufindus is an acknowledged leader in online classified advertising, with more than 20,000 small and medium-sized business customers across the UK and around 1.9 million online directory listings.”

BT has ambitious growth plans for its directories business.

It has recently launched BT Exchanges, a new online directory service that offers consumers a more innovative way to find and connect to businesses.

Of the extra jobs Ms Tennant said: “I can’t be specific about the areas they will be in, but most will be sales related, which shows our confidence in taking the business forward. We are planning to take on extra staff at each of the offices of Ufindus.”

In the year to March 31, 2007, Ufindus, which has a total staff of 300, generated revenues of £14m.