Instrument company shutting South Bend call center

INDIANAPOLIS — A musical instrument retailer says it will close its 100-worker call center in South Bend and move the operations to Indianapolis by the end of this year.

The Woodwind & Brasswind also plans to close its store in South Bend, eliminating 15 jobs and making the company exclusively an online retailer. The changes are being made by parent company Guitar Center, which bought Woodwind & Brasswind in 2007 after it filed for bankruptcy.

Guitar Center vice president Dennis Haffeman tells the Indianapolis Business Journal that the call center’s lease in South Bend expires in February.

He says the company decided to move the center to Indianapolis in order to expand its presence in central Indiana, where Guitar Center has a distribution center and a retail store.