News

Whakatane Gains Call Centre - 6 April 2004

Locally based energy company Bay of Plenty Energy will open a call centre and billing operations in Whakatane creating new jobs for the Eastern Bay. The call centre will operate within their Commerce Street office and will handle all customer inquiries.

General Manager David Bulley said that relocating the call centre made good sense commercially and would allow the business to take advantage of local knowledge. Over 95% of Bay of Plenty's Electricity's customers are based within the Greater Bay of Plenty region.

"Most of our current team live and work in the Bay and our customers have told us that a local team is important to them. Our main focus is meeting the specific needs of our local customers and this move also further supports our community with employment opportunities", said Mr Bulley.

The move will increase Bay of Plenty Energy employment at their Commerce Street office to over 40 staff by the middle of the year. Mr Bulley said that a number of roles were likely to be filled by members of the current team who would move to Whakatane and from previous experience he was confident that he would be able to fill the remaining new roles from "the excellent local talent within the region".

"We work hard to maintain a positive work environment where the customers comes first", said Mr Bulley. "As a local company a key to our ongoing success is our commitment to providing a superior level of personal service. It is all about meeting the specific needs of our local customers and employing our team from within the community will help us to deliver additional service enhancements that are not currently possible."

The Bay of Plenty Energy retail function has been shared with regional supplier King Country Energy and is currently based in Taumarunui. Mr Bulley confirmed that the teams would work closely during the transition to capitalise on the depth of experience and skills held. The teams would also continue to support each other once the Bay of Plenty Energy team was up and running.

The range of positions will be advertised in the regional newspapers shortly.

For further information, please call:
Bay of Plenty Energy Tel: 0800 500 710