Tesco to hire 16,000 new permanent workers as online demand stays strong

Tesco plc (LON: TSCO) said on Monday that the Coronavirus pandemic fuelled an unprecedented growth in its e-commerce unit. To that end, the largest British supermarket chain expressed plans of creating up to 16 thousand new permanent jobs to cater to the rising online demand, that it said was still showing resilience even after the government eased COVID-19 restrictions.

The company also said that the number could be further increased based on how demand unravels in the upcoming months. Tesco had seen an 8.7% increase in underlying sales in its first quarter, as per the report published in late June.

Tesco to hire three thousand new drivers for delivery

According to Tesco:

“The supermarket expects the majority of these roles to be filled by colleagues who joined on a temporary basis at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, but who now want to stay with the business permanently.”

As per the British retailer, it will hire 3 thousand new drivers for delivery and 10 thousand new pickers that will serve to assemble customer orders. The remaining positions that Tesco didn’t specify, will be spread out in several roles at its distribution centres and stores at large.

The British supermarket remained open for the public as essential retailers amidst the Coronavirus pandemic that has so far infected more than 325 thousand people in the United Kingdom and caused over 41 thousand deaths. As a result, the higher demand pushed grocers into hiring new workers in recent months.

Aldi and Lidl also expressed plans of new hiring in July

Tesco’s peers, Aldi and Lidl, also revealed plans of expanding their workforce by 1,200 workers and 1,000 workers respectively in the upcoming months.

According to Kantar (market research firm), grocery sales climbed sharply in the initial months of the virus outbreak. In the 12 weeks that concluded on 9^th August, however, sales had relatively slowed down as the government started to ease social distancing measures.  

Shares of the company are currently priced at 229 pence. In comparison, Tesco’s per-share price was 255 pence at the start of 2020. The stock had tanked to as low as 211 per share in early July. In 2019, Tesco’s performance was fairly upbeat, with an annual gain of 30%.

At the time of writing, the British general merchandise retailer has a market cap of £22.37 billion and a price to earnings ratio of 23.95.