NEWS RELEASE

St. Paul, MN -- iQor Inc., a New York City-based company that specializes in providing call center services for companies around the world, announced Tuesday that it has opened a new call center in Plymouth that will bring hundreds of new jobs to the community.

Company officials said the 49,000-square-foot facility at 12755 Highway 55 in the western Twin Cities suburb has a capacity for more than 1,000 employees.

About 550 employees from a previous iQor call center in St. Louis Park have moved to the new facility. The company expects to hire an additional 60 people by the end of the year and nearly 100 more workers next year.

"We are pleased that iQor has chosen to expand in Plymouth," said Dan McElroy, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). "These are good-paying jobs that will contribute to the economic growth and vitality of Minnesota."

Vikas Kapoor, president and chief executive officer of iQor, said the company decided to expand in Plymouth because the Twin Cities area "has been a terrific market for us and will continue to be a key part of our global footprint."

iQor call centers operate in five countries, specializing in customer care, customer retention and revenue recovery services for large and mid-sized firms.

The company, which has increased its worldwide revenue by 40 percent in the past four years, has 12 facilities in the United States, including the current Plymouth facility, as well as operations in Canada, India, Great Britain and the Philippines. About one-half of the company's 11,000 employees are based in the United States.

In the Plymouth expansion, DEED officials worked with company consultants to help them find an existing building for the new call center and have offered employee training assistance under the Minnesota Job Skills Partnership. Company officials are still evaluating whether to train employees under the state program.

iQor is the second major company to expand in Plymouth this year. Earlier, McQuay International opened a $52 million research and testing center in the city and added more than 70 people. The company specializes in commercial heating, ventilating and air conditioning systems.