Household International Adding Another 520 Jobs in Tampa

Week of June 24, 2002
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Second Major Expansion in Two Years

Household's 520-job expansion adds to the torrid job-growth totals going up in Tampa (pictured). The Gulf Coast City ranked No. 1 among U.S. metros in its percentage of job growth from October 2000 to October 2001, according to U.S. Dept. of Labor statistics. The city's 46,000 new jobs over that period represented a 3.8 percent increase, the Labor Dept. reported.

Household International Adding Another 520 Jobs in Tampa

By JACK LYNE,
Site Selection Executive Editor of Interactive Publishing

TAMPA, Fla. – Holding true to expansive form, Household International (www.household.com) is appreciably expanding its corporate household in Tampa, Fla. (www.tampabay.org). The No. 2 U.S. consumer finance firm (trailing only Citigroup) has announced that it's adding 520 new jobs in the Florida Gulf Coast city.
The expansion will increase Household's Tampa work force by a whopping 40 percent. The 520 new jobs will be in the company's local-area consumer lending and mortgage services business units. Part of the expansion strategy includes relocating Household's consumer lending operation. Consumer lending is moving into a new 60,000-sq.-ft. (5,400-sq.-m.) facility that will function as a collection center for Beneficial, one of Household's consumer lending units. The collection center will be located in Pinebrook Commerce Center in Brandon, a Hillsborough County city along metro Tampa's I-75 fast-growing corridor.
The mortgage services unit will maintain its operations in an existing facility in Brandon, which sits some 1.5 miles (2.4 km.) from consumer lending's new home. The two Household units had heretofore shared space in the building on Grand Regency Blvd.
Household's announced timeframe for its expansion calls for adding 130 new positions in 2002 and another 195 new jobs in both 2003 and 2004, company officials said.
The announcement marks Household's second jumbo-sized expansion in Brandon in less than two years. In 2000, the company added 500 new jobs.
"The local community has greeted us with open arms ever since we expanded into the Brandon area two years ago," Kimberly Crum, Household International's group director of human resources, said at the project announcement. "Our recent growth illustrates our long-term commitment to the area."
Tampa, however, apparently wasn't a lock for Household's most recent expansion, Crum told The Tampa Bay Business Journal.
"We continue to grow at a rapid pace, and it's important to us to find adequate space," Crum said. "We looked across the country to find a location."

Expanding Employment to Fill Available Space

Household's Gulf Coast choice continues the Prospect Heights, Ill.-based company's blistering expansion clip in Tampa. The company's local-area growth has paralleled Parkinson's Law of Data: "Data expands to fill the space available for storage." Only in Household's case, it's been employees who've been expanding to fill available space.
The roots of Household's Tampa-area growth intertwine with the local expansion of another financial services giant, Beneficial Corp. Marking the successful culmination of Tampa recruiters' five-year courtship, Beneficial set up a downtown operation in 1996. Household had also established a presence in Tampa, but it registered its first major local growth quake in April of 1998, when the company announced its US$9 billion acquisition of Beneficial. By then, Beneficial's Tampa operation had grown to total some 650 employees.

"Household International met Hillsborough County's average wage nexus by 115 percent, and we therefore supported the company's expansion by granting the QTI (Qualified Target Industry) and fast-track permitting," said Commissioner Pat Frank (pictured), chair of the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners.

By 2000, Household had filled the downtown Beneficial location that it acquired. The company then relocated to the Grand Regency Blvd. facility in Brandon. By last year, though, the company had also maxed out that 125,000-sq.-ft. (11,250-sq.-m.) structure, filling the space with some 1,250 employees.

Pay Levels Qualify New Positions
for State QTI Tax Rebates

Incentives helped keep Household's Tampa growth engine humming in high gear, company officials said. "Tampa Bay provided nice incentives for us, so we elected to stay here," Crum said. "Household International's expansion significantly impacts this community and signals the continued quality growth of this community and the positive momentum we have seen in 2002," said Commissioner Pat Frank, chair of the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners. "Household International met Hillsborough County's average wage nexus by 115 percent, and we therefore supported the company's expansion by granting the QTI (Qualified Target Industry tax rebates) and fast-track permitting."
Household's pay scale for its 520 new positions met the criteria for the state's QTI tax refund program. The QTI program awards rebates of $3,000 to $5,000 for creating and maintaining, for at least four years, at least 10 new jobs that pay no less than 115 percent of the state or county average. (Pay levels determine the exact amount of the rebates.)
"We believe in providing a compensation package and a work environment that attract top-notch performers," said Crum, "and we are committed to rewarding and retaining employees who consistently produce outstanding results for the company, our customers and shareholders."
Household, however, didn't divulge specific salary levels for the new jobs. Many of the new employees, company officials explained, will receive performance-based incentives in addition to their base salaries.

Bush (pictured) praised the state and local economic development teamwork that facilitated Household's expansion in Brandon.

About half of the 520 new positions will be call center jobs, Household officials said. The remainder will range from clerical to managerial jobs, they explained.

Bush Praises Teamwork

Gov. Jeb Bush praised the teamwork that helped land Household's expansion.
"I want to thank the economic development team at the state and local level that worked so successfully together to assist Household International in meeting its expansion goals," the governor noted.
Bush singled out Enterprise Florida (www.eflorida.com), the Tampa Chamber of Commerce's Committee of One Hundred (www.tampachamber.com), Hillsborough County (www.hillsboroughcounty.org) and the Governor's Office for their major roles in supporting the expansion. The development team's close coordination with Household enabled the company to identify and begin its move into the new facility in Brandon in less than six months, Bush explained.
Household's bullish expansion in Tampa reflects its larger growth. No. 147 on the Fortune 500, the company upped its headcount by more than 14 percent last year, increasing total employment to 32,000 workers. Household, which provides loans to mostly lower-middle-income and working-class customers, has more than 1,700 worldwide offices in Canada, the UK and the USA.

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