BATON ROUGE - Office supplier Staples Inc. plans to hire 400 people in the Baton Rouge area within four years to handle domestic customer service needs, the company says.
Most of the employees will handle telephone calls, e-mail and Web chats from their homes. Pay will start at $9.05 per hour, said Doug Woodard, vice president of North American delivery for Staples.
The company said the operation will have an annual payroll of $10.4 million.
Of Staples' $18.2 billion in 2006 revenue, $5.9 billion came from the business customer segment and North American delivery is experiencing double-digit annual growth, company spokesman Owen Davis said.
Mayor Kip Holden said city-parish government will invest $150,000 in work force development dollars annually for three years in the Staples project.
Michael Olivier, the state's economic development secretary, said $350,000 in state funds were secured by the governor to pay for computer equipment that will enable Staples to begin training in Baton Rouge quickly.
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