A HOME shopping giant is to close its Indian call centre - bringing dozens of jobs to Bolton.

Shop Direct is to close its Bangladore call centre next month. The centre opened in March 2002 and a total of 250 jobs in the UK were lost as a result.

Extra jobs will now be created at six of Shop Direct's call centres - Bolton, Burnley, Worcester, Widnes, Preston and Newtown in South Wales.

A company spokesman for the company, formerly known as GUS home shopping, said the call centre in India had been a trial, but the level of service was not as high as the company wanted.

News that the centre in India was being closed followed an announcement by Trade and Industry Secretary Patricia Hewitt that clearance had been given for the acquisition of Shop Direct and home delivery arm Reality, by the Barclay Brothers owned March UK. They also own the Littlewoods catalogue business. This means the future of 1,225 jobs in Bolton have been secured.

The news has been welcomed by Bolton's deputy council leader Cllr Guy Harkin.

Cllr Harkin described Bolton as a boom town, adding: "Any improvement in the job situation is good. We have virtually full employment in Bolton and if people want a job in the town, they can pretty much get it.

"Anything that improves the economic prospects of the town can only be welcomed. We are a boom town at the moment." Unions have been campaigning against the loss of call centre jobs to India with little success. UK finance, telecoms and other companies have switched work abroad where labour costs are a fraction of what they are in the UK.

Speaking about the takeover, Dr Brian Iddon, MP for Bolton South-east, said: "I am delighted that this merger has been given the approval of the Secretary of State. I was contacted by a large number of my constituents who work at the Thynne Street site who were expressing their concerns about the possibility of losing their jobs if the merger was rejected."

Delloite consulting estimates that 200,000 call centre jobs will leave the UK over the next five years. Abbey national, AXA, HSBC, Lloyds TSB, Prudential, BT, National Rail Enquiries, BUPA and Accenture all have offshore functions. However, Union Amicus said Shop Direct was likely to be the first of many organisations to return back to the UK.