Collection Agency Adding 220 Jobs in Indianapolis and New Office

A government-focused collection agency in Indianapolis announced today that it was adding 220 people to its workforce, including 120 in the Circle City.

Premiere Credit said that the 120 jobs will be added to its east side Indianapolis location over the next 18 months. The new employees will fill roles in collections, skip tracing, management, IT, HR and accounting. The company currently employs around 185 people.

“We’re seeing an increase in demand for our services across the board,” CEO David Hoeft told insideARM.

Hoeft said that most of the demand is coming from work on the company’s contract with the U.S. Department of Education. Premiere is one of the five collection agencies operating under the ED contract’s small business set aside.

“Probably 80 percent of this growth is attributable to ED,” said Hoeft. Premiere is a top performer in the small business set aside, which leads to higher placements from the department, said Hoeft.

ED ranked Premiere as the second-leading agency in the small business set aside for 2007 for its student loan contract ("Agencies Collect $3 Billion on ED Contract," Jan. 17). Through December 2007, Premiere had collected $62.6 million for ED since the contract began 34 months ago.

He noted that other contracts Premiere works on, like the Indiana Department of Revenue and Illinois Child Support Agency, have also increased their placements with the collection agency.

The remaining 100 new jobs will be placed at a location to be determined. Hoeft said Premiere is looking at about 90 different locations as it evaluates the best place for expansion. “We expect a decision on a new location in the third quarter of this year,” said Hoeft. “And we’ll start populating the new office in January or February of 2009.”