By By MaryClaire Foster
Escambia County residents who are currently seeking employment may soon find opportunity in Atmore following the creation of more than 50 new jobs slated to begin in June.
The job creation is a result of the merging of the customer operations centers of sister companies Matrix Telecom Inc. and Americatel.
Matrix’s customer operations division is currently located in Atmore and the same division of Americatel will be moving to co-locate with it in the former Trinsic office building.
Stephen Wagner, executive vice president of customer operations for Matrix, said it was a positive move for Americatel and was done so because of the high quality of work the company already receives from its Atmore employees.
Matrix Telecom Inc. operates as Matrix Business Technologies and Trinsic, Powered by Matrix providing voice and data services to small and medium enterprise and residential customers in the United States Matrix acquired Trinsic out of bankruptcy in 2007.
Americatel is based out of Rockville, Md. and provides international telecom services to immigrants in the United States and Canada. The two companies combined in January of this year and are owned by Platinum Equity.
The division relocation announcement was made at the Escambia County Industrial Development Authority Tuesday morning.
Atmore Mayor Howard Shell said the move reflected well on the city.
“On behalf of the City, I want to welcome Americatel to Atmore,” he said. “They will provide good paying jobs to our citizens. The fact that they chose Atmore because of Matrix Telecom’s efficient customer operations speaks highly of Atmore’s workforce. We are very pleased to have them as part of our business community.”
The positions will include call center and management jobs and because Americatel is an international telecom company, Wagner said there is an increased interest in hiring multi-lingual employees.
Wagner said because it is uncertain whether they would be able to attract enough multi-lingual employees to Atmore that they would retain employees in Toronto with those skills.
As for future job openings beyond the more than 50 expected in June, Wagner said it is not a definite, but a possibility.
A job fair will be held from noon until 7 p.m. on May 11 and 12 at the facility located at 201 Brookwood Road in Atmore.
Wagner said they expected plenty of applicants, including some former Trinsic employees.
Wagner said they would try to reach out to former employees that they could, but encourage all to attend the job fair.