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Talk of the bay

Sykes Enterprises to reopen call center in Kentucky

By KRIS HUNDLEY
Published October 17, 2005

Sykes Enterprises is heading back to Hazard, Ky.

Two years after closing its call center in this mountainous coal region and laying off about 400 workers, Sykes, which handles customer service for clients like Microsoft and SBC Communications, has apparently reconsidered that decision.

"I guess they just like mountain people," said Hazard Mayor Bill Gorman, who was part of the group that initially welcomed Sykes to the community in 2000 with a $3.2-million incentive package.

Gorman said he had a visit several weeks ago from a Sykes real estate executive. "It was a pleasant visit," the mayor said. "He told me stories about how they were having problems with dialects (at Sykes' call centers) in China and problems in India."

About a week ago, the Sykes official called the mayor with news that Sykes planned to reactivate the center, which has been vacant since August 2003. The company is now advertising for workers in the Hazard Herald. Gorman said he thinks Sykes is trying to fill as many as 150 positions.

"They said they were going to raise the pay rate, so they might get some people back," he said. A spokeswoman for the Kentucky Economic Development Cabinet said Sykes did not receive additional state funds to reopen.

Sykes' executives did not respond to a request for comment. In its latest annual report, the company, which once had more than 20 U.S. call centers, said it has seven domestic centers, along with 17 in Europe and South Africa, one in Canada and 10 elsewhere internationally. The company also said it intended to close its center in India this year.

Gorman said he didn't know why Sykes, which has closed call centers from North Dakota to Colorado and Oklahoma to Florida, chose Hazard for a second act.

"You know, I was so thrilled, I didn't even ask," he said.

[Last modified October 14, 2005, 20:17:02]