A CALL centre bringing more than 100 jobs to South Tyneside has been opened as bosses revealed the Internet company behind the operation.

Last week Amicus Outsourcing unveiled its new £1m call centre operation in the former Co-op office, in St Bede's Chamber, Jarrow.

The company started the operation with the financial backing of South Tyneside Borough Council and One NorthEast, but is a wholly-owned subsidiary of multi-million pound Internet retailing company dabs.com.

The company is the UK's leading Internet retailer of information technology and technology products, offering about 34,000 lines to well over 500,000 online customers across the country, with sales of £118m a year.

The call centre is already off to a successful start after winning a large contract with a yet to be announced 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 already announced plans to increase turnover at its Jarrow base to £50m in the next three to five years and increase the workforce to up to 500.

The operation was helped to secure its funding by Darlington chartered accountancy firm Clive Owen and Company.