Travelers Property Casualty recently selected Spokane as the site for its newest national sales center. The new office will provide product and price information to consumers who have requested information on Travelers coverage.

"After an extensive search for a West Coast site, Travelers ultimately chose Spokane for this office," said Phil Kenyon, vice president of direct response operations for Travelers personal lines. "We decided on Spokane because of the outstanding nature of this community, superior employment pool and excellent education system."

The Spokane sales center will be headed by a locally-based general manager who will report to Kenyon.

Kenyon said that, while the decision to locate the new facility in Spokane is final, Travelers must still decide on a specific location in the city and complete negotiations for a lease.

"I'm sold on Spokane and so is everyone at Travelers," he said.

Travelers is the tenth company to establish a regional call center operation in Spokane this decade.

"We saw a number of call centers here, so there were people who had been educated in this particular industry," said Michael LaBaw, president of Sound Telecom, which relocated to Spokane last year.

Egghead Software first came to Spokane in 1995, when it opened a national sales and technical support center. A consolidation of 13 customer service offices form around the nation, the center troubleshoots software and hardware problems and markets new products to customers.

Egghead has since relocated its entire corporate headquarters to Spokane.

Exports growth

An economic study released earlier this year shows foreign exports from Washington increased at an annual rate of 7.1 percent, making export production the fastest growing sector of the state's economy.

The study by Dick Conway and Associates of Seattle follows similar reports done in 1974, 1978 and 1987.

According to Tim Douglas, director of Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development, the study found that Washington is the most trade-dependent state in the nation. In 1995, Washington exported $28.2 billion in goods and services, or about $5,182 per capita, compared to $3,063 per capita for the nation as a whole.

"The study shows that, between 1963 and 1995, export-related employment grew twice as fast as other employment in our state, and that is great news for our economy," said Douglas.

The study pointed out the effects of export trade on other related jobs.

According to Conway, every direct export job in the economy is responsible for another 2.6 supporting jobs.

-- Bill King