Thus pulls plug on its call centres

THUS is quitting the call centres business in a shake-up that will delay the telecoms group's move into the black.

The Scottish Power offshoot is selling its loss-making centres to put more cash behind its core voice and data business.

Chief executive Bill Allan said the sale of the interactive division, which makes money from scratchcard competitions, may not be far behind.

Thus will be in profit towards the end of the financial year to March 2005. Two months ago, Allan was hoping for profits across the second half. 'We will be ebit [earnings before interest and tax] positive at the back end of the year,' he said today.

The group has been looking to sell the call centres for two years, after clients baulked at the idea of buying such services with a telecom package.

Murray International subsidiary Response Handling is paying £4m for the business. Allan said: 'The price is good for us and good for the shareholders.'

In a trading update, Thus said first-quarter cashflow was ahead of last year but it was still suffering from an increase in lower-margin business. Overall revenue was 'strongly in line with year-end expectations'.

It plans to access BT exchanges to target smaller and medium-sized firms. The shares today fell 2 1/4p to 20 1/2p.