ANNOUNCEMENTS

Friday, January 4, 2008

Local collection agency eyes further growth plans in 2008 San Antonio Business Journal - by Tamarind Phinisee

TORENCE WHITE / SAN ANTONIO BUSINESS JOURNAL
Glenda and Phillip Spears hope to continue growing their business in the new year.

Locally based collection agency Talbott, Adams & Moore Inc. is in expansion mode, buying multimillion-dollar debt portfolios and eying plans for larger office space.

Talbott Adams made two multimillion-dollar debt portfolio purchases this year. Co-owner and COO Phillip Spears declined to reveal the names of the companies. In July, Talbott Adams purchased a $72 million debt portfolio from a top property management company. It followed that transaction in November with another $14 million acquisition of a debt portfolio from another top property management company.

Talbott Adams officials say they plan to purchase more than $500 million worth of debt in 2008.

Talbott Adams buys portfolios of bad debt from other companies or collection agencies. It then works to collect money from the bad debt in those portfolios.

"I own the debt. I can give that to our attorneys and our attorneys can go ahead and start filing lawsuits on individuals that don't want to pay," Spears says.

Aside from growing its debt portfolio, Spears says the company wants to open multiple satellite offices around the U.S., expand its customer service offerings and build a new facility to house its headquarters.

Currently, the company is located near the Medical Center area at 1603 Babcock Road, Suite 155.

Spears says the goal is to construct a 10,000-square-foot building. Talbott Adams would occupy some of the space and lease out the rest. Plans are to construct the building on the city's North Side. However, Spears declines to give specifics about the location, saying the deal is pending.

More growth

Furthermore, co-owner Glenda Spears says the company plans to expand the customer service side of their business.
The firm uses an outbound and blended dialer software solution that allows it to take inbound calls while generating outbound calls.

The dialer, explains Glenda Spears, allows its employees to call debtors. At the same time, the software system sends automated phone messages to clients or customers of other companies or organizations.

For example, if a utility company wants to send a phone message out to all of its customers that payment is now due, the system can be programmed to call all of those individuals and leave an automated reminder or allow them to pay over the phone at that time. The company then takes the payments and wires these funds over to the utility company.

The firm also handles complaints for its clients. Talbott Adams does this for apartment complexes, utility companies, political campaigns, banks, medical organizations and more.