Aqua America Selects Cary, North Carolina for Site of National Call Center
Aqua America Selects Cary, North Carolina for Site of National Call Center
October 18, 2004
Aqua America Selects Cary, North Carolina for Site of National Call Center BRYN MAWR, Pa.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 18, 2004--Aqua America, Inc. (NYSE:WTR) announced today that Cary, North Carolina will be the site of one of three national call centers the company will operate beginning in 2006. The company will also maintain its current North Carolina state headquarters in Cary.
"We are very excited about expanding our business in North Carolina," said Aqua America Chairman Nicholas DeBenedictis. "We have been doing business in this state since December 2000 and have experienced tremendous growth since then. "We started with a 300-customer system in Iredell County and have since become the largest private water company in North Carolina serving more than 60,000 customers--nearly 200,000 people--in multiple counties."
DeBenedictis explained that while the Cary call center will be physically located in North Carolina, its staff will handle calls from throughout its Southern operations including Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Texas.
"We anticipate an initial employment level of approximately 30 people in the Cary call center but are negotiating for additional space within the building for a potential doubling of that workforce within the first five years," explained Aqua America Vice President, Customer Operations Christopher Franklin who is heading the centralization of company's customer service operation. "While there is a possibility that some of our existing call center employees in other states might transfer to the Cary call center, we anticipate that the majority of the employees for this operation will be hired locally. With training planned to begin in mid-2005, we anticipate that we will begin the hiring process in early spring."
"Aqua America's new operations center will bolster the company's presence in North Carolina, which has grown tremendously since it began doing business here five years ago," said North Carolina Governor Mike Easley. "This announcement is further proof that our investments in education, workforce development and infrastructure are yielding results as we continue to attract new industries to the state."
The new call center operation will replace the primarily state-by-state customer operation currently in place at Aqua America and provide the company greater administrative and operations efficiency by centralizing the billing and collections operations as well as traditional customer service.
In addition to the Cary site, Aqua America will operate two other call centers--one of which will be at or near Aqua America's Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania headquarters and a third site to be determined in the Midwest.
Aqua America, Inc. is the largest U.S.-based publicly-traded water utility serving more than 2.5 million residents in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, Indiana, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Maine, Missouri, New York, and South Carolina. Aqua America is listed on both the New York and Philadelphia Stock Exchanges under the ticker symbol WTR. The company has been committed to the preservation and improvement of the environment throughout its history, which spans more than 100 years.
CONTACT:
Aqua America, Inc.
Donna Alston, 610-645-1095
dpalston@aquaamerica.com
or
Randi Polanich, 610-645-1175
rmpolanich@aquaamerica.com
SOURCE: Aqua America, Inc.
"We are very excited about expanding our business in North Carolina," said Aqua America Chairman Nicholas DeBenedictis. "We have been doing business in this state since December 2000 and have experienced tremendous growth since then. "We started with a 300-customer system in Iredell County and have since become the largest private water company in North Carolina serving more than 60,000 customers--nearly 200,000 people--in multiple counties."
DeBenedictis explained that while the Cary call center will be physically located in North Carolina, its staff will handle calls from throughout its Southern operations including Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Florida, and Texas.
"We anticipate an initial employment level of approximately 30 people in the Cary call center but are negotiating for additional space within the building for a potential doubling of that workforce within the first five years," explained Aqua America Vice President, Customer Operations Christopher Franklin who is heading the centralization of company's customer service operation. "While there is a possibility that some of our existing call center employees in other states might transfer to the Cary call center, we anticipate that the majority of the employees for this operation will be hired locally. With training planned to begin in mid-2005, we anticipate that we will begin the hiring process in early spring."
"Aqua America's new operations center will bolster the company's presence in North Carolina, which has grown tremendously since it began doing business here five years ago," said North Carolina Governor Mike Easley. "This announcement is further proof that our investments in education, workforce development and infrastructure are yielding results as we continue to attract new industries to the state."
The new call center operation will replace the primarily state-by-state customer operation currently in place at Aqua America and provide the company greater administrative and operations efficiency by centralizing the billing and collections operations as well as traditional customer service.
In addition to the Cary site, Aqua America will operate two other call centers--one of which will be at or near Aqua America's Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania headquarters and a third site to be determined in the Midwest.
Aqua America, Inc. is the largest U.S.-based publicly-traded water utility serving more than 2.5 million residents in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Illinois, Texas, New Jersey, Indiana, Virginia, Florida, North Carolina, Maine, Missouri, New York, and South Carolina. Aqua America is listed on both the New York and Philadelphia Stock Exchanges under the ticker symbol WTR. The company has been committed to the preservation and improvement of the environment throughout its history, which spans more than 100 years.
CONTACT:
Aqua America, Inc.
Donna Alston, 610-645-1095
dpalston@aquaamerica.com
or
Randi Polanich, 610-645-1175
rmpolanich@aquaamerica.com
SOURCE: Aqua America, Inc.