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May 31, 2006
APAC closes Omaha call center
(Omaha World-Herald (NE) (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) May 31--APAC Customer Services Inc. has closed its Omaha call center, throwing a reported 290 people out of work.
The center at 90th and Burt Streets shut down Saturday. The company reported to state and city officials that 290 positions were being eliminated.
Employment there was 500 early in 2005 and 700 in 2001, according to World-Herald and Greater Omaha Chamber of Commerce counts.
APAC, which has its headquarters in Deerfield, Ill., closed 12 of some two dozen call centers last year and has closed or sold others this year.
The closings followed a restructuring that resulted in APAC ending traditional outbound telemarketing last year. Instead, APAC said, it will concentrate on customer-care work, taking calls from people calling client companies. Major clients include Verizon Wireless and Citicard.
The closing ends an operation started by Omaha telemarketing pioneers Steve and Shari Idelman that once employed 1,200 people.
Idelman Telemarketing was launched in 1986. In 1995, the Idelmans sold majority ownership to a Chicago investment firm. APAC bought the renamed ITI Marketing Services, including the Idelmans' minority holding, in 1998.
A Grand Island, Neb., call center that did outbound calling was closed by APAC in 2002, leaving the Omaha center the company's only operation in Nebraska.
By the company's own description in its annual reports, the business flourished in the 1990s but then declined.
Revenue, $428.8 million in 2001, fell to $239.9 million last year. The company lost $4.9 million in 2001, turned profitable for two years and then began losing money again.
Last year's loss was $22.4 million, including $7.7 million in restructuring charges.
(source: http://www.tmcnet.com/usubmit/-apac-closes-omaha-call-center-/2006/05/31/1665721.htm)
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