Supermarket giant Tesco is to create 250 new contact centre roles in Dundee.
The move comes less than 24 hours after Lloyds Banking Group announced it is to close the its call centre in the city with the loss of a similar number of roles.
The Tesco jobs will be added in to the group’s existing customer engagement centre (CEC) site at Baird Avenue, which currently employs 1,100 staff.
The Tesco customer engagement centre at Baird Avenue in Dundee.The new jobs come as Tesco moves to close Dundee’s sister CEC site at Cardiff, a decision that will impact on 1,100 roles in the Welsh capital.
As a result of the decision, Dundee will be home to Tesco’s main UK customer engagement operation.
The group – which employs more than 2,000 workers in the city across its store and CEC estate – said it expected to continue to offer a high level of customer service over the phone, by email, and on social media, once the changes come into effect.
Tesco said the move was part of a wider transformation that had been ongoing for the past two years to build a more sustainable and efficient business in a “rapidly changing” retail environment.
Matt Davies, UK CEO of Tesco, said: “The retail sector is facing unprecedented challenges and we must ensure we run our business in a sustainable and cost-effective way, while meeting the changing needs of our customers.
“To help us achieve this, we’ve taken the difficult decision to close our customer service operations in Cardiff.
“We realise this will have a significant effect on colleagues in the Cardiff area, and our priority now is to continue to do all we can to support them at this time.”
Dundee Labour’s city development spokesperson, Councillor Richard McCready, said: “It is good to hear that Tesco has decided to base extra jobs in Dundee, which is a shame for people in Wales who may find that their jobs has moved.
“Hopefully there will be an ability for those who currently work at Lloyds Banking Group in Dundee to get these new jobs.
“However, we need to continue to make the case to the Lloyds Banking Group seeking to get them to change their mind about the future of their Dundee call centre.”
