Eishtec, the Waterford-based customer contact centre operator, is to create 320 jobs in the North.

The company, which is Irish-owned, plans to open a new customer service centre in Craigavon, Co Armagh.

Eishtec, which was established in 2011, specialises in providing services to the mobile telecoms sector; one of its largest customers is the UK digital communications group EE.

Colm Tracey, Eishtec's operational director, today said the decision to invest in Northern Ireland and open its third customer service centre had been driven by increased business from EE.

But Mr Tracey said the company also wanted to “significantly” expand its customer base and the Craigavon site would also “also service other clients and play a vital role as we diversify and grow our business.”

He paid tribute to the help the company had received from local government agencies.

Invest NI has offered Eishtec more than £1.2million of assistance towards job creation and training support while further training support is also being provided by the Department for Employment and Learning.

Mr Tracey said: “The support from Invest NI and DEL has been essential in enabling us to quickly begin recruiting and training staff. We have started our recruitment drive, with 60 jobs already in place, and are keen to ramp up our recruitment efforts immediately.

“The quality of our staff has been central to our success so far and we are confident that we can recruit high calibre staff for the Craigavon centre.”

The latest investment boost for Northern Ireland's expanding call centre sector has been welcomed by the North's enterprise minister Arlene Foster and minister for employment and learning, Dr Stephen Farry.

Ms Foster said Invest NI had worked hard to secure the investment for Craigavon against competition from locations in the Republic, Scotland and Wales.

“When the new jobs are in place, they will generate over £5.5million in salaries,” she added.