Egghead Software Plans To Add 200 Jobs At Valley Service Center
By the end of the summer, Egghead Software’s Spokane Solutions Center will be the retailer’s largest operation, employing more people than its Issaquah, Wash., headquarters.
The company said Tuesday 200 jobs will be added at its Liberty Lake customer service center, bringing local employment to 335 people. By comparison, 200 work at Egghead headquarters east of Seattle.
The Spokane jobs, paying $16,000 to $40,000 a year, will be created by shutting down mail-order operations in Kalispell, Mont., and credit and inside sales departments in Issaquah.
“We continue to evaluate the desirability of locating additional operations in Spokane,” Vice President of Human Resources Kurt Conklin said at a press conference in Spokane.
“We have made no decision” about moving headquarters to Spokane, he added.
Egghead is one of the nation’s largest resellers of computer software developed by Microsoft Corp. and others. Egghead operates a chain of retail stores and markets software through catalogs and telephone sales.
By mid-July, Conklin said he expects to have hired 150 local employees, and transferred 50 others from Montana and Issaquah to the Spokane center.
The company has scheduled a job fair for interested applicants at 8 a.m., 1 p.m. and 6 p.m. on May 8-10 at the ART Bingo Hall, 8307 E. Trent.
The Spokane Area Economic Development Council, which helped recruit Egghead, had hoped the company would grow to 400 people.
“They’re already to nearly 350, so this is fantastic,” said EDC President Bob Cooper.
There is still ample room for Egghead to grow. Even with the additional Spokane employees, Conklin said Egghead will occupy only half the 115,000-square-foot, former Hewlett-Packard building it bought last winter in the MeadowWood Business Park. The company continues to offer the empty portion for lease to other tenants, but thus far has no takers.
The EDC estimates the 200 new jobs brought by Egghead will generate another $7.1 million in personal income for the Spokane economy, and $3.9 million in retail sales.