VXI call center to start training

The downtown business is expected to start operating in mid-October.

By Don Shilling

YOUNGSTOWN — A new call center downtown will begin training its first 84 employees next week as it moves toward bringing on 1,000 workers in two or three years.

VXI Global Solutions has been remodeling about 31,000 square feet in 20 Federal Place, the former Phar-Mor Centre, for the past month. The center is expected to begin taking phone calls in mid-October, said Nick Covelli, senior vice president of sales and marketing for the Los Angeles-based company.

VXI last month announced that it spent $4 million to renovate offices that used to house a call center for Akron-based InfoCision Management Corp. InfoCision closed the center and relocated work from Youngstown to its centers in Boardman and Austintown.

The city is contributing $600,000 to the renovation costs from federal stimulus funds. It plans to recoup that money from rent from VXI.

The city took over operations of the building after Phar-Mor closed its corporate headquarters in 2002.

Even though InfoCision had a call center in the building, VXI wanted to remodel the space to its own specifications, Covelli said.

Some of the interior walls were rearranged, and new carpeting and work stations were installed.

Hiring is being handled through Mahoning County One-Stop. Workers are being paid about $10 an hour.

Covelli said VXI expects to continue hiring — with about 500 workers expected to be on the job in a year and perhaps 1,000 within two or three years.

VXI has been growing rapidly by expanding business with current clients and adding one or two new clients each year, he said. Company sales of the privately held company are expected to be about $115 million this year, compared with $32 million in 2007, he said.

The Youngstown center will handle inbound sales calls and inbound customer-care calls that include providing information about products and billing.

VXI has 11 call centers, with Youngstown being the third one in the U.S. It has 7,000 employees.

shilling@vindy.com