THREE hundred new jobs are set to be created in Newport at a new contact centre.

Cleppa Park will house Carpeo Estates Planning, a new division of Carpeo Business Process Outsourcing from next month.

The FCA-regulated organisation currently employs 250 people in Swindon, but has chosen to open a new branch of its operations at Caerleon House, in Duffryn.

Funding support from the Welsh Government secured the investment for Wales.

The new contact centre is set to open in June, with he business recruiting 24 employees at all levels for its launch date.

There are plans to increase this to 60 by end of the year, and 300 by 2022.

Starting salaries are highly competitive at £22,000 basic with the opportunity to earn an additional £7,500 bonus per year.

The cabinet secretary for the economy, Ken Skates, said: “This is Carpeo’s first investment in Wales and I am delighted the company is joining a growing and vibrant sector that employs more than 30,000 people in more than 200 centres in Wales.

“Carpeo has ambitious growth plans with the potential for further future investment in Wales and I welcome their plan to open this new business in Newport which will create a range of jobs and training opportunities for local people.”

Carpeo Estate Planning’s chief executive officer Mike Minahan added: “Having sat on the board of the Welsh Contact Centre Forum for the past 15 years, I know that Wales has a range of competitive advantages to offer contact centre businesses.

“The quality of people available and their experience of working in a regulated services market is a huge pull.

“On the softer side, the Welsh accent is sympathetic and consoling, particularly important in our market.

“We’re hugely proud to be bringing these well-paid roles and good employment opportunities to Newport.”

The new centre will be dealing with enquiries for the new subscription-based Carpeo Estate Planning service.?

Sandra Busby, the managing director of the Welsh Contact Centre Forum, meanhwile, said: “Carpeo Estate Planning’s announcement is further evidence of the attraction of Wales as a home for some of the most innovative contact centre businesses around.

“Over the past two decades our role has been to build up Wales as the destination of choice for organisations that want to run a successful contact centre.

“Our communities need jobs like the ones Carpeo Estate Planning has created and contact centre operations across Wales contribute £650m per annum to the economy. We’re an industry that anchors many of Wales’ blue chip organisations to the country and has arguably matured into one of Wales’ most important.”