YOUNGSTOWN Call center purchased

OSI kept all 120 former Exterra employees and is looking to hire more workers.
By CYNTHIA VINARSKY
VINDICATOR BUSINESS WRITER
YOUNGSTOWN -- OSI Strategic Receivables, a St. Louis, Mo.-based company with 9,000 employees nationwide, has bought the former Exterra Credit Recovery call center on Federal Plaza West.
The new owner will specialize in debt collection for credit card companies at its call center here, as Exterra did, but will eventually add other business categories as well.
Chris Shuler, a senior vice president of operations, said OSI's debt recovery division also collects for auto loans, student loans, health care and utility companies.
OSI offered all 120 former Exterra employees an opportunity to stay, Shuler said, and is looking to hire 20 to 30 more full- and part-time workers at a starting wage of $8 an hour.
"It was an advantage to us to buy a fully functional call center," he said. "The associates there are doing a fine job."
New hires can expect to receive performance bonuses, health benefits, 401K accounts and tuition assistance. Former Exterra employees will see no changes in their benefit and wage packages.
Plans for growth
In time, OSI expects to nearly double the work force at the Federal Plaza center, bringing the total to 220, he said, but he couldn't say how soon that growth will come.
Shuler would not reveal what OSI paid for the Exterra Center.
He said OSI was impressed with the call center staff, as well as the condition of Exterra's office facilities and computer equipment. He said the company will replace some software and will spend about $100,000 on employee training.
OSI is the second-largest company nationwide in the receivables management business, based on revenue, Shuler said, with its 2001 sales topping $612 million. Only Pennsylvania-based NCO Group is larger.
Founded in 1995, the fast-growing OSI reported revenue growth of 13.2 percent last year. Shuler said it has grown mainly by acquisitions.
Exterra Credit Recovery had two other call centers when it opened its center in Youngstown in 1998, but it eventually closed its other centers in Indiana and California.
Dennis Sholl, Exterra chief executive, told The Vindicator in March that the Youngstown center was retained because it was the most productive, operating costs were lower and there was a ready labor pool in the Mahoning Valley. Sholl, who is based in the San Francisco area, could not be reached to comment on the sale.
vinarsky@vindy.com