MORE than 80 jobs are set to be created after a call centre business expanded in Southend.

Ventrica has opened a new£750,000 wing at its base in Tylers Avenue thanks, in part, to a £114,000 boost from Southend Council.

The firm, founded by managing director Dino Forte, has gone from zero to 160 jobs in just five years and hopes to have 300 staff by the middle of 2016.

Council chief executive Rob Tinlin was at the launch of the wing, which has stunning views over Southend and the Estuary.

Mr Forte said: “This has been a very costly exercise and we originally thought it would be half a million pounds. But it ended up being three quarters of a million, as a lot of the expense in this business is the technology, so the grant definitely helped with that.

“Had we not received that money, we still would have expanded, but it’s helped relieve some of the pressure, helped us to install more technology and helped us grow quicker.

“Without it, we would probably have had to scrimp on things like air conditioning, but I believe very strongly in employees having a comfortable, enjoyable place to work – that’s why we have a head massage lady come in every week and always have lots of fruit delivered.”

The council was able to provide financial help after it secured cash from the European Union. Ventrica has several famous names on its books, including Ugg Boots, JML and McDonald’s.

Mr Forte said his firm was helping to advertise Southend. He said: “I spend a lot of time speaking to people outside Southend and trying to talk up Southend. It oils the wheels to get other people to take Southend seriously.”

VENTRICA benefited from a £1.8million grant given to Southend Council to help create jobs in the borough.

The European Union development funding was won by the council, via the Government, and about £600,000 has already been dished out to 23 businesses.

According to council leader Ron Woodley, this has already prepared the way for 185 new jobs, while safeguarding 168.

Among the beneficiaries have been celebrity chef Mark Baumann’s seafront steak and lobster restaurant Bourgee and Antonia Waite, daughter of former council leader Anna Waite, who is converting a sun shelter in The Leas, Westcliff, into a restaurant. Each received £100,000.

DINO Forte’s rise to call centre kingpin began 18 years ago when he started a business above a kitchen shop in Leigh.

Ten years later Converso employed more than 300 people, with a turnover of £6million a year. It was sold to Indian multinational Usha Martin for a sevenfigure sum, but Mr Forte decided to start again in 2010, even though the world was in recession, by launching Ventrica.

By that time the industry had changed , with Mr Forte saying the term “call centre’’ was out of date, as his staff were not only dealing with calls, but also tweets, chat rooms and text messages, preferring to call his business a “contact centre’’.

He set up in Tylers House and before long the business had created 160 jobs and attracted clients such as UGG Boots, the McDonald’s Monopoly game, the Sun, JML and, more recently, Hawes and Curtis shirts and Purplebricks.com estate agent.