Supermarket Sainsbury‘s is to create 10,000 jobs across its convenience business over the next three years, it has been announced today.
Earlier today, the grocer opened its 500th convenience store, in Hampshire and it has plans to open one to two smaller format stores a week.
In its first half year, Sainsbury‘s opened 49 stores and was recently named Convenience Retailer of The Year for the third consecutive year at the Retail Industry Awards.
“Opening our 500th store is a real milestone in our plans to create a scale convenience business,” Simon Twigger, Sainsbury‘s Director of Convenience, said.
“The business is going from strength to strength. Our stores often have upwards of 10,000 customers a week, mostly walking to the store, living or working nearby and making a huge contribution to regenerate high streets across the country.”
Last week, the Paralympic sponsor revealed that it will create some 20,000 temporary roles in the run-up to Christmas to cope with increased demand, following news that its convenience arm reported 20 per cent year-on-year growth in the 28 weeks to September 29th 2012.
In terms of market share, Sainsbury‘s now stands at 16.7 per cent, its highest for a decade, boosted by its official sponsorship of the Paralympic Games which saw David Beckham front the advertising campaign.
As demand for its products continues to grow, Twigger noted that Sainsbury‘s is looking to recruit staff across all functions.
He explained: “The jobs announced today will range from managerial and team leader roles to customer service. Work in our convenience business is particularly fast-paced and flexible, with great opportunities for progression.
“It‘s one of the best possible starts to a career in retail and many of our convenience store managers have worked their way up into the role.
“We make sure we recruit locally. Our colleagues, like our customers, are local people committed to serving the local community.
“We see people continuing to shop little and often, using local ‘top up shops‘ to help them manage their budgets, reduce the need to travel to out of town retail parks and minimise the amount of food they waste.”
