Tánaiste Mary Harney announced today (Friday 28th May, 1999) that Cedar Group Plc of Surrey, England, will establish a call centre in Castlebar, Co. Mayo, with the support of IDA Ireland, which will create 150 new jobs over the next eighteen months in the marketing of financial services products to UK markets.

Cedar is a developer and provider of computer and call centre software solutions and services to business organisations. Its products include solutions in the area of Customer Relationship Management which are used by companies for call centre operations, data warehousing and quality workflow and document management.

The Tánaiste, announcing the investment, said "this is a significant project for Castlebar and the Western region. It will offer a wide range of employment opportunities for people from school leaver level through to graduates and those experienced in areas such as finance, software, technical support and information technology. Cedar will establish strong links with the Galway-Mayo Institute of Technology in the town and it expects a proportion of those recruited to be certificate, diploma and degree graduates from the Institute."

"Cedar's decision to locate in Castlebar was due to Ireland's advantage over other locations in technical infrastructure and the number of young technically educated people available. This investment continues the successful implementation by IDA Ireland of the Government's policy of attracting major international services projects to locations outside the principal urban areas. It will be of benefit to IDA Ireland in its continued marketing of the region to attract other international services companies to locate there," the Tánaiste said.

Cedar is responsible for the establishment of the Castlebar call centre as part of a new joint venture operation - "Sword" - recently formed with several financial services organisations to sell their products to UK markets. The financial institutions will provide suitable products to "Sword" and Cedar, utilising its customer relationship marketing techniques, will provide the management, technology and call centre infrastructure necessary to market them. Castlebar will be responsible for telemarketing, call handling, client service teams and systems support.

Cedar Group's joint venture partners in "Sword" are Dresdner Kleinwort, Cornhill Insurance, Hanover & Skandia Reinsurance, Independent Insurance, Bupa and Scottish Life. The Castlebar Call Centre will be operated and managed by a Cedar associate company "Ansaback Ltd".

Cedar Group Plc, established in 1983, employs 270 people in the UK. It has a customer base of over 500 organisations which includes BP Chemicals, Cellnet, HM Treasury, Lloyds Bank and Norwich Union. For the year ended 31st March 1998 revenues were IR£14.4 million, with profits of IR£2.8 million. Results for the twelve months to 31st March 1999 are due for release shortly.