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Karen Darby to Launch Social Enterprise Call Britannia
Serial entrepreneur, speaker and mentor, Karen Darby is set to launch a new social enterprise (aptly named) Call Britannia. Based in the UK, the company will set up 10 call centres in the most deprived areas of the UK, from which jobs will be given in favour of the unemployed. Working with companies across private and public sectors, Call Britannia will handle both in and outbound calls.
Talking recently to FreshIdeas Events, Karen said:
“Every single one of the jobs in those contact centres will go to people who are out of work, particularly the long term unemployed, lone parents, or people with barriers to work, because I know it can be done.”
Over the years, British consumers have become increasingly frustrated by the out-sourcing of call centres to countries halfway across the globe. Not least of all as meaning is frequently lost in translation, but also as it has taken valuable jobs away from the UK. As the economy tumbles deeper into the recession it is unlikely that the company – that aims to create 10 000 jobs over the next 5-7 years – will have a problem sourcing staff or renewing customer confidence whilst also making money.
Karen Darby, who recently won the FreshIdeas Events mentor programme with mentee Paula Wynne, co-founder of Remote Employment, is no stranger to enterprise or call centres. In the 1980s, she founded one of the UK’s first telemarketing companies, Decision Group, before setting up Karen Darby Direct – a home based business providing call-centre training – in 1990. In 2003 she launched Simply Energy Ltd. Originally a telephone service offering a free and impartial price comparison service for gas and electricity, the company re-branded as SimplySwitch, broadening its product comparisons and going online. Having sold the company to the Daily Mail in 2006 for £22m, Call Britannia will be Darby’s fourth venture.
For more information on the launch of Call Britannia visit Karen Darby Direct.
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3 Responses to “Karen Darby to Launch Social Enterprise Call Britannia”
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Great idea!
My hopes are that these women will get paid above minimum wage, as a mum who has worked plenty of menial jobs while the kids were young, I always felt these types of jobs took advantage of the fact that women were unlikely to complain about the low wages, just to have the security of a job and the ability to top it up with tax credits, and this I feel is very wrong.
Good pay = esteem + lower staff turnover + creation of wealth in the community
and alot of women are the family wealth creators in such areas.
Good luck Karen with your new venture.
Well this looks very good! It’s nice to see some jobs coming back home to England, giving a helping hand to some of the people who need it most. Long-term unemployed can have a hard time getting a job, be it recession or not. Wish you all the best!
[...] Britannia, which is headed by Karen Darby, the founder of price comparison site Simply Switch, has secured a total of almost £1.3m in [...]