West Corp. plans to lay off 160 employees from its Bryan call center by the end of August, company officials said Thursday.
The cuts are planned because the the Omaha-based company lost its American Express account, officials said.
"We're going to continue to operate there, and we'll have about 400 or so employees that aren't affected by this," said David Pleiss, vice president of West Corp. "We're also going to try to get a new client in here to take over so that the folks that are there, hopefully, we can get them to work on a different program."
Finding replacement clients has helped avoid layoffs at the company's other call center locations, and officials are hopeful it will work here, but there are no guarantees, Pleiss said.
Brazos County Judge Randy Sims, who helped recruit West to the area in 2005, said Thursday that the business was no different from other U.S. companies facing tough economic times.
"There are lots of places cutting back," he said. "Maybe not that severely, but they have to take a look at their bottom line and do what they have to do."
The Research Valley Partnership, a local economic development corporation, lured the company to the area in late 2005, with an incentive package valued at more than $500,000.
To receive the incentives, West Corp. agreed to maintain a $15 million payroll and bring in $3 million in new investments over several years.
It was unclear Thursday whether the planned layoffs would jeopardize the deal.
"It looks like it's going to be up to the discretion of the Research Valley Partnership," Pleiss said. "They can terminate the agreement or require us to pay all or any portion of the incentive funds."
Officials with the Research Valley Partnership said they would have to take a wait-and-see approach before making a decision.
"What we'll do is monitor their effort over the rest of this year, then evaluate where they are," said Todd McDaniel, chief executive of the Research Valley Partnership. "If they reach their payroll agreements, per the agreement, they'll be eligible for those incentives."
If the agreements are not met, a few things could happen, McDaniel said.
The incentives could be pro-rated or not given at all, he said. That decision won't be made until after December, when the compliance with the agreement is analyzed, he said.
McDaniel said the call center remained healthy, with national clients such as Dish Network.
"What's a little misleading about the announcement is that they're actually growing their Dish Network side," he said. "They're not closing down their facility here," he said. "It's just the nature of their business model."
If growth with Dish Network continues, McDaniel said, some employees who were handling the American Express account could be assigned to that account.
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