ONE hundred jobs will be created with the opening of a high-tech call centre in South Tyneside.

Amicus Outsourcing has invested more than £1m in the venture, based in the former Co-op office in St Bede's Chamber, Jarrow.

Company bosses hope to increase turnover to £50m in the next three to five years and swell workforce numbers to 500.

The call centre has already scored a large contract with an unnamed major utility company to deal in gas and electricity.

Amicus staff have installed the latest computer software and renovated the listed St Bede's building to enable it to handle thousands of calls for utility companies, retailers and financial service operators.

The company has the backing of South Tyneside Council, which came in with a large start-up grant and was helped in securing funding by Darlington-based chartered accountancy firm Clive Owen and Co.

Charles Burns, Amicus operations director, said: "While initially we will be carrying out sales-orientated work the plan is to quickly move into electronic retailing.

"This will involve handling orders by phone or over the Internet and fulfilling the order via a warehousing facility which we plan to open when the business is established.

"Ideally, we would hope to open a warehouse in South Tyneside creating more jobs for local people and long term we hope to explore home working opportunities."