OSI RECEIVABLES Buyer plans to add workers

He's going to bring back the Exterra name.
THE VINDICATOR
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- A Boardman man is buying OSI Strategic Receivables, a call center in the Phar-Mor Center downtown, with plans to expand the work force by two-thirds by summer.
The new owner is Rob Fox, 36, who served as vice president of operations and business development when the center was owned by Exterra Credit Recovery of California. Exterra sold the Youngstown Center to OSI of St. Louis in June.
Fox will bring back the Exterra Credit Recovery name and will retain the 61 employees still working there. He said he plans to increase the staff to 100 by summer, and he hopes eventually to employ 160 there.
Starting pay will be $8 an hour, and workers will also earn monthly incentives.
He decided to restore the Exterra name, Fox said, because the company had a good reputation in the credit recovery industry. "It makes a good story, like the phoenix coming back," he said. "And people in the industry know the name."
What they do
Center workers contact consumers who have outstanding debt and act as consultants, Fox said, helping the debtors through the process of formulating a new budget or consolidating their debt with a lender.
Fox is buying a few OSI accounts, plus computers, desks, phone lines and dialers. He said he is already lining up his own accounts, which will include work for some local companies.
"The main reason I wanted it was the people," he said. "These are people I hired and trained myself when I was with Exterra."
The financing package includes loans from Bank One, the Mahoning Valley Economic Development Corp. and Youngstown's Small Business Administration Initiative, and Fox said he's been working on the deal since July.
One SBA requirement nearly killed the deal, he said, but city officials contacted a top SBA official and persuaded him to modify the rule in this case, arguing that Youngstown needs the jobs.
Praise from mayor
"It's been a long road and Mr. Fox is to be commended for his commitment and tenacity," Mayor George McKelvey said. "I have seldom worked with a businessman who has been so determined and refused to say no. He's put his whole future on the line."
Fox credited Tamika Woodbury of the city's economic development office; Donna Guerra of MVEDC; Walter Good at the Youngstown/Warren Regional Chamber; Perry Chickonoski, a Bank One vice president of business banking; and Julie Michael Smith, the governor's regional representative, for putting the financing deal together.
"They got it done. They all played a part," he said. "Now I know what they mean when they say that a deal has a life of its own."
vinarsky@vindy.com