A former Albertson's store in Temple Terrace will be home to more than 400 Coca-Cola Enterprises inside salespeople.
By STEVE HUETTEL
Published July 17, 2003
TEMPLE TERRACE - The company that bottles, markets and distributes most Coca-Cola beverages is opening a call center in Temple Terrace that eventually will employ more than 400 workers.
Coca-Cola Enterprises Inc. will hire inside salespeople, earning an average of $35,500 a year, to work with smaller retailers over the telephone and via e-mail and the Internet, said spokeswoman Michele Holcomb.
Those customers now order products and ask for service calls from visiting account representatives or inside salespeople scattered across the country.
Workers at the new center will "deal with customers that might not need face-to-face contact so much, like restaurants," Holcomb said. "We've always had an inside sales function, but we're streamlining it into one brand new facility."
Housed in a former Albertson's supermarket on Fowler Avenue near 56th Street, the center will open this month with 135 full-time employees, she said. They will initially handle customers in Florida and Texas. But the $7-million center will grow to more than 400 employees and service about 500,000 customers across North America in the next few years.
Coca-Cola Enterprises conducted a nationwide search before deciding to put the facility in Hillsborough County, where the company already has its Florida division office, one of four Florida bottling plants and a support services center for its North American operations. The company will have nearly 1,200 employees in Hillsborough by the end of July.
"The financial investment in Hillsborough County is just one way that we are showing our long-term commitment to this area," said Jay Ard, vice president and general manager of the Florida division.
Coca-Cola Enterprises will receive $1.23-million in tax rebates from state, county and Temple Terrace governments under Florida's Qualified Targeted Industry program, Holcomb said. The incentive is available to "high-value industries" that bring new jobs paying at least 115 percent of the average wage in the state or a county.
Coca-Cola Enterprises bills itself as the world's largest bottler and sells about 80 percent of the Coca-Cola Company's bottled and canned beverages in North America. Anyone interested in employment can visit www.cokecce.com the company's Web site.
