Afni, a Bloomington, Ill.-based collection agency, will close its call center in Peoria, Ill. and lay off 300 employees, the company announced Thursday. The decision is a result of call reductions from clients.
Afni will try to find partnerships with area companies that are looking for employees with the same skills sets, said Afni spokesperson Lori Boyce. She said the company in the next two months will look for opportunities to host job fairs and events to help connect employees with companies that might be hiring.
Afni opened its Peoria operations in 1998. No changes are expected at the headquarters in Bloomington, where 750 people are employed, she said.
In October 2010, Collections & Credit Risk reported that the company rented 51,577 square feet in Evans, Colo. for a new 500-person call center, according to brokers involved in the deal at the time. At the time, the company planned to hire 250 jobs initially and another 250 by February 2011. It was not immediately clear whether the company was able to follow through with those plans.
Afni is a privately-held company that employs more than 5,000 people nationwide, with operations centers in Alabama, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Illinois and Kentucky.
