Garland Call Centres has been taken into administration, after losing some "key contracts". The move has led to the loss of over 1,000 jobs.
The call centre, based in Hartlepool Marina, Middlesbrough and South Shields, has appointed administrators from PricewaterhouseCoopers to step in.
Garlands employed a total of 1,158 people - 621 in Hartlepool, 359 in Middlesbrough and 178 in South Shields. About 70 staff are to be retained to help the administrators with the closure of the business.
Of the administration Garlands said; "The appointment of an administrator follows decisions by a number of Garlands' largest clients to move their outsourced customer service activity to other centres, many in low wage countries including Asia and Africa."
Set up by Chey Garland, the company started as a debt collection operation in 1981. By 2008, the employee number had risen to 3,000, but then in 2009 Garland lost several large broadband and mobile operator clients, haemorrhaging a significant slice of its total business.
It is believed that the lost crucial contracts were with Vodafone, Orange and TalkTalk.
The company's last recorded accounts for the year to 31 October 2008 show a turnover of £44 million.
