A MAJOR York employer today revealed a big jobs boost for the city.

The CPP Group announced plans to create 200 extra jobs.

It means the £131.6 million revenue consumer assistance services company, which employs 900 people at its international headquarters at Holgate Park, will have 1,100 people on the York payroll by the end of the year.

The news comes as what has been described as "a much-needed boost" to a city which has suffered a succession of job loss announcements, including three major closures - of Thrall Europa's rail wagon factory, Terry's, and the York Pensions Centre at Monks Cross.

Extra staff are needed at CPP to cope with the growing volume of work, such as offering protection for customers cards, keys, wallets and purses, giving car roadside assistance and insuring mobile phones.

The new intake places CPP firmly in the top five major employers in York.

It underlines CPP's determination to keep its call centre in York and not move jobs to India.

The trend to move jobs was a factor in the announced closure of Terry's next year with the loss of more than 300 jobs, when chocolate production transfers to Poland, Slovakia and Sweden.

Norwich Union Life's decision in June to axe 150 York jobs came largely as a result of outsourced IT work.

Most of the new jobs will be in CPP's customer contact centre, although it will also be recruiting in the IT, marketing and finance departments.

Kevin Fisher, group human resources director, said: "We are as committed to York as when we first moved to the city five years ago.

"As long as we can continue to recruit in York to the numbers that we need - and we have the facilities and space for more - then we will.

"It would be crazy to say that we wouldn't look at alternatives, but York is where we want to be. We don't want to outsource to other countries."

CPP already employs 1,500 people across its offices, at York HQ, London and Tamworth, Staffordshire. Its workers handle five million service conversations and 6.8 million telemarketing conversations per year.

The jobs surge was described as a "boost for York" by Imelda Havers, chief executive of york-england.com, the inward investment board which lured CPP to the city in the first place.

She said: "With recent job cuts in the city, it is extremely encouraging to see a local employer going from strength-to-strength and the people of York benefiting from this growth. It shows yet again that York is a great place to do business."

Updated: 10:55 Wednesday, August 25, 2004