The Winston-Salem Journal reported today that Pepsi Beverages Co., will be expanding its Winston-Salem call center, adding a total of about 200 agent positions to the existing employee pool. North Carolina Governor Beverly Perdue visited today at the Winston-Salem offices of Pepsi to make the jobs announcement, which aides say will have a significant impact on the economic development of North Carolina's Forsyth County.
The relocation of jobs to the area was achieved with something of a carrot and stick approach. Commissioners of Forsyth County, together with Winston-Salem's City Council, reportedly approved a total of $400,000 in incentives for Pepsi if it picks the location over six other contact center sites Pepsi maintains around the U.S., and the state of North Carolina promised to match any local incentives up to $400,000, for a potential total incentive package of $800,000.
Pepsi currently employs about 870 contact center agents in its Winston-Salem contact center. Pepsi indicated earlier this year that it planned to consolidate its seven existing U.S. contact centers into four sites. Three other states had reportedly been under consideration for the contact center positions, but North Carolina's incentives apparently tipped the scales in favor of the state, allowing it to both keep the existing agent positions in Winston-Salem and bring in the new agent jobs.
The new contact center positions are expected to pay an average of $36,000 per year.