Wednesday, April 22, 2009
E-commerce firm GSI closing Martinsville call center
GSI Commerce will eliminate 279 jobs at the facility, but will keep its fulfillment center open.
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GSI Commerce, a Pennsylvania-based e-commerce and multichannel services company, said Tuesday that it will close its call center in Martinsville, eliminating 279 jobs.
The news is the latest significant blow to this Southside city and Henry County, where thousands of people have lost jobs in recent years. Martinsville holds Virginia's worst jobless rate of 20.2 percent.
GSI Commerce plans to consolidate its Martinsville call center with its three other U.S. call centers in Florida, Wisconsin and Georgia. The company conducted an analysis of its operations, including capacity, the impact of its work-at-home network of employees and lease conditions at its facilities, according to a news release.
Kelly Henry, a spokeswoman for GSI, could not provide further details about why the company chose the Martinsville center for closure.
GSI will hire additional employees at its remaining call centers to support the consolidation, and it plans to expand its work-at-home base, which launched in 2007, the news release said. Henry said she did not know the details of the work-at-home expansion and whether or not it could include Martinsville-area employees.
The Martinsville call center opened in 1999, and it was acquired as part of GSI's acquisition of Accretive Commerce in 2007.
The lease at the facility at 730 E. Church St. ends Sept. 30, but a phased shutdown will begin in June.
GSI isn't leaving Martinsville entirely. The company's 479,000-square-foot fulfillment center, where it fills orders for clients' Internet stores, will remain open.
That operation employs 208 people, and more may be hired as GSI adds new business this year, the news release said.
GSI also expects to hire about 220 seasonal employees at the center for full- and part-time jobs in the fourth quarter.
