LEWISTON – A contract with Citibank has sparked a hiring frenzy at Outsourceworks, the assembly and packaging company in the Hill Mill.

“We’re in the process of hiring 250 new people,” said Paul Rubin, executive director of Outsourceworks, the business component of the social advocacy group Faithworks. The Citibank contract will expand the Outsourceworks’ payroll by $550,000 to $600,000 for work that will extend through the end of November, and possibly lead to year-round employment. About 140 of the slots have already been filled.

Buoying the good news was a visit from Gov. John Baldacci, who toured the facility Friday to meet the workers and observe the operation.

Outsourceworks’ employees are assembling and packaging holiday promotional gifts for Citibank customers. Rubin said 47 tractor-trailers will be loaded with the products and shipped to the U.S. Postal Service for delivery.

“I have always been very impressed with the whole program, and with Paul, ” said Baldacci, who met Rubin while the director was a student at L-A College. “Every time I come here, I’m more and more amazed.”

Outsourceworks offers employment to people based on their ability and desire to work; many of them have a tough time holding a job elsewhere. Workers have an array of social services offered to them as well, from education to transportation support.

Staying on schedule

After the governor worked his way along the assembly lines shaking hands, he was approached by a woman who has brought up six children, is raising a granddaughter and was injured in an accident in April.

“This is the best place I’ve ever worked,” she told the governor. “I wanted you to know that.”

All the work at Outsourceworks is paid by the piece. Rubin said some people working on the Citibank project are making $19 an hour, but the more typical wage is $11 to $13 an hour. The minimum is $8.50 an hour.

The nonprofit company has made a name for itself by ensuring quality, hand-finished work on time. The schedule for the Citibank project means the nonprofit has been open 15 hours dailyh Monday through Thursday, 12 hours on Friday and nine hours on the weekends. Rubin said the flexibility of the workforce allows Outsourceworks to meet its production deadline efficiently, which helped the company win the contract with Citibank.

Instead of Mexico

“This was supposed to be done by a company in Mexico, but they couldn’t meet the deadline,” said Rubin.

If the current contract goes well, he said he anticipates additional work from Citibank, which does these promotional mailings five times a year.

The Citibank contract forced the company to take a third floor in the Hill Mill for storage. Rubin has been looking for new space for Outsourceworks for the last year or so, so the nonprofit can expand into the food and pharmaceutical packaging markets. The mill’s wood floors and other physical characteristics prevent it from getting FDA approval for handling food and drugs.

He said it’s likely the company will move to the new Lewiston industrial park near the Wal-Mart distribution center site, once the logistics can be arranged. The company expected to make $1.7 million in sales this year, before landing the Citibank contract; now it anticipates $2.2 million.

Rubin hopes to expand the company further, offering its services to other domestic businesses looking for a competitive edge within the global marketplace. It has been doing the hand-finishing work for Geiger since 1998, allowing that Lewiston company to stay competitive with overseas manufacturers of promotional products.

“I hear from a lot of businesses who are concerned about outsourcing (offshore) and are looking for opportunities not to do that,” said Baldacci. “Here’s a great one.”