(Associated Press via NewsEdge) Internet retailer Amazon.com will employ 450 people at its new Irish support center, which will help customers on its British and French Web sites, the online auctioneer said Monday.
About 150 people, including many French citizens, have already been recruited to work at the center near Cork Airport in southwest Ireland . It will handle orders, emails and telephone calls from customers who use http://www.amazon.co.uk/ and http://www.amazon.fr/.
'As our business has grown, and as we have expanded the categories of products we offer, we need to expand our customer service support as well,' said Marc Onetto, Amazon's SVP of worldwide operations.
'The Cork center, with its strategic location and highly skilled work force, enables us to grow with the business and provide our many millions of European customers with an improved level of service,' he said.
The Irish government's Investment and Development Agency offered Amazon.com Inc. a confidential package of aid to woo it to Ireland rather than Britain, France or a low-tax rival in Eastern Europe. Enterprise, Trade and Employment Minister Micheal Martin said Amazon's arrival in Ireland 'enhances Ireland's reputation as a base for the most sophisticated global digital-media companies.'
Ireland has attracted a disproportionate share of foreign investment since the mid-1990s, including more than 500 U.S. multinationals, which take advantage of Ireland's 12.5% tax rate on business profits.
© 2007 The Associated Press © 2007 Dialog, a Thomson business. All rights reserved