As the UK continues to recover post-pandemic, several big-name retailers have sought to expand their workforces through the opening of new stores or opening new warehouses and offices.
Other retailers have implemented the government’s Kickstart scheme, which provides funding to businesses to create jobs for 16 to 24 year olds on Universal Credit.
Here is a list of the retailers who, since July, have been actively hiring:
Boohoo Group
Boohoo revealed it is set to create 5000 new jobs off the back of an investment programme worth over £500 million across the UK over the next five years.
The fashion retailer enjoyed strong sales throughout the Covid-19 pandemic, despite being forced to tackle workplace abuses within its UK supply chain. It said the investment reflected the need to meet growing demand.
Homebase
Homebase became one of the first major retailers to take part in the government’s Kickstart scheme by creating 300 jobs for young people across Britain.
The scheme gives people aged 16-24 the chance to learn valuable new skills, gain real life work experience and build confidence so that they are prepared to take on the challenges and prospects in their careers ahead.
Homebase said it would welcome the new recruits joining its store teams with the first new batch of Kickstarters starting in July with more joining on August 23.
Matalan
At the start of the month Matalan also created over 200 jobs under the government’s Kickstart scheme to help young people gain work experience and industry recognised qualifications.
As part of its Early Careers proposition, Matalan has created bespoke placements across the business, from head office to retail and logistics, in order to assist young people aged 16-24 to gain meaningful long-term employment.
John Lewis
500 jobs will be up for grabs next year as the John Lewis Partnership signed an agreement with Tesco to lease a one million sq ft distribution centre at Fenny Lock in Milton Keynes.
The warehouse, leased for 11 years, will become the John Lewis Partnership’s second largest distribution centre after its two million sq ft campus four miles away, at Magna Park in Milton Keynes.
“We will invest in the site’s automation capability to support future growth and, over the next two years, we will recruit 500 new partners to work at the distribution centre, which we plan to start operating during summer 2022,” John Lewis Partnership operations executive director Andrew Murphy said.
Gym+Coffee
Gym+Coffee, which recently opened its first store in Belfast, has confirmed plans to double the current number of head office staff to 50 employees by December of this year.
In retail stores the current figure of 85 team members is expected to reach almost 120 by the end of 2021 following the opening of three new clubhouses.
This will bring the total number of employees from 110 to 170, a number that is expected to grow to 250 by the end of 2022.
Poundland
Last month Poundland’s parent company Pepco Group announced plans to embark on a recruitment drive, with the creation of 13,000 net new jobs across its operations in Europe.
While the number of new UK jobs remains unknown, a Poundland spokesperson told Retail Gazette that the majority of the new jobs would be created in mainland Europe.
The recruitment spree will take place over the next three years as part of the firm’s wider store portfolio expansion plans.
Along with creating new jobs, Pepco Group also plans to treble its number of stores to help it achieve its target of over €1 billion in core earnings within five to seven years.
Aldi
Aldi recently announced it would hire over 2000 new employees across the UK between now and Christmas.
The discounter, which currently has over 920 stores and employs around 38,000 people, is pushing ahead with plans to open more than one new store a week this year.
Aldi is opening new stores in towns and cities such as Canterbury, Swansea and London, as well as many others up and down the country.
The grocer is seeking store assistants as well as store managerial positions, caretakers and cleaners, and store apprentices.
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