Sainsbury’s announced this morning that the company is creating 900 jobs at its new online fulfillment centre in east London.
The centre, due to open this autumn and located in Bromley-by- Bow, plans to immediately recruit 470 people followed by a further 430 by 2020.
The jobs created at the site will range from drivers and order pickers to product replenishers and managers.
The leading supermarket is also trialling a same-day delivery service to meet the growing demand for online shopping in the UK’s fiercely competitive grocery sector. At the moment, online orders are picked up from stores across the UK – Sainsbury’s said the new centre will help it fulfil up to 25,000 more orders per week.
Recruitment has just begun for the first 470 jobs and the retailer plans to recruit another 430 colleagues by 2020, for a mixture of roles including drivers, order pickers, product replenishers and managers.
Robbie Feather, Sainsbury’s director of online said:
“Demand for our online delivery service in the capital continues to grow,”
“We expect this trend to continue as more and more customers enjoy the flexibility of multi-channel shopping using our groceries website and app, in addition to visiting stores.”
“Our online orders are currently picked from supermarket stores across the UK and this model will continue, but the Bromley-by-Bow centre will help us keep pace with demand in London, enabling us to fulfil another 25,000 orders per week.”
The fulfilment centre is being created at the former Royal Mail building, which is being completely redeveloped and kitted out with the latest automation and picking technology. Sainsbury’s is also trialling same day online grocery deliveries at three stores in London and the south east.
The British grocery sector continues to be locked in a supermarket price war, which has seen the Big Four supermarkets slash their prices to protect market share from the rise of German discounters Aldi and Lidl.
Rebecca joined the HRreview editorial team in January 2016. After graduating from the University of Sheffield Hallam in 2013 with a BA in English Literature, Rebecca has spent five years working in print and online journalism in Manchester and London. In the past she has been part of the editorial teams at Sleeper and Dezeen and has founded her own arts collective.
