Newcastle Building Society commits to 500 new jobs
19 June 2008
The creation of 500 new jobs in the North East came another step closer yesterday as one of the region's largest private sector employers and the UK's 12th largest building society, officially opened for business at its new additional office, Cobalt 21.
The Grand Opening of the state-of-the-art building situated in the UK's biggest business park, Cobalt, in North Tyneside, was attended by some 200 guests, followed by an evening's entertainment at the spectacular Alnwick Gardens, welcomed by Her Grace, The Duchess of Northumberland.
The process of recruiting staff to fill 500 new jobs at the Society by 2012 is well underway. Fifty of these positions have already been filled, with around a further 50 vacancies currently being advertised across the business.
Newcastle Building Society employs more than 1,200 people across its 36 branches and main offices. The majority of jobs created at Cobalt 21 will be within the Society's expanding Strategic Solutions business, which provides technology, processing capability and administrative support services to third party clients, such as banks and other building societies.
The Strategic Solutions business already counts a number of major financial sector firms as customers; including Bradford & Bingley, Bank of Ireland and Iceland's Landsbanki with Icesave. The new Cobalt facilities will enable the development of services for a wider market, as well as significant further investment in leading edge information technologies.
Newcastle Building Society posted extremely strong annual results for 2007, and expansion across a range of business areas is set to continue through the coming year.
Chief executive, Colin Seccombe, says: "Making the move to Cobalt Business Park is a real landmark for Newcastle Building Society - our new office offers us everything we need in terms of location, facilities and capacity for growth, and also provides a suitable business continuity site in the event of an unforeseen event at our Principal Office in central Newcastle.
"Our Strategic Solutions business makes a major contribution to the Society's overall commercial success, and our continuing growth in this area, as well as within our core member business areas, is a real testament to the quality of the services we provide and to the skills of the teams that deliver them."
"The tremendous support that we've had in bringing our Cobalt plans to fruition has been central to our continuing commitment to the region, and the extensive employment opportunities that we will create over the coming years will make a significant contribution to the North East economy."
As jobs are created at Cobalt, regional development agency One NorthEast is investing £1.3m, via an SFI Grant, into the project.
