IRVING, Texas — Exeter Finance Corp., a specialty auto finance company, announced the opening of a new servicing center that can accommodate up to 500 employees. The servicing center is located near the Exeter corporate offices.

Approximately 150 employees have moved to the 76,000-square-foot facility. Exeter has more than tripled its employee count over the last year, and currently employs almost 600 people in its corporate office, servicing center and 46 branches nationwide. 

“Our ability to continue to grow the company amid today’s tough economic conditions is the direct result of the hard work of our dedicated and talented team, and the solid business platform we’ve put in place,” said Mark Floyd, CEO of Exeter. “We’re focused on taking our strategy of providing local market expertise and exceptional, personalized service to dealers in every state. We still see tremendous opportunities ahead.”

In August 2011, Exeter was acquired by Blackstone and secured a $600 million line of credit, which provided additional funding capacity for its recent growth and expansion. Exeter also completed its first rated term securitization earlier this year, issuing $200 million in notes backed by subprime automobile installment receivables.

Exeter differentiates itself by using a decentralized underwriting process carried out at local branches and controlled through centralized credit policies and a custom-scoring model. Today, Exeter manages a portfolio of more than $500 million, an increase of more than 300 percent over the last year.