DPD and B&Q owner are recruiting thousands of staff amid online sales boom

Delivery firm DPD and B&Q owner Kingfisher are now recruiting thousands of UK staff due to a huge surge in online shopping.

High street shops being closed for several months during lockdown led to a huge increase in the amount of people shopping online.

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Though the shops were given the go-ahead to reopen on 15 June in England, online sales continue to remain high, in what has been described by DPD bosses as the "biggest boom in online retailing" the UK had ever seen.”

How many jobs are being recruited?

Kingfisher’s CEO, Thierry Garnier explained that the new positions will be "temporary" placements required during the summer.

He also said that the length of these roles are dependent on levels of demand once coronavirus measures begin to ease and as more people feel confident shopping in person.

Kingfisher has said it intends to recruit 3,000 to 4,000 more staff, with 50 per cent of them in the UK.

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Meanwhile, DPD announced its plan to hire 3,500 drivers and 2,500 support staff, such as mechanics and parcel sorters.

In a job advert for a “Multi Drop Delivery And Collection Driver” posted by DPD local, the company wrote “Here at DPD Local, we are looking for enthusiastic customer-centric Employed Multi-Drop drivers to join our existing team.”

The job is listed as paying £9.15 per hour however the listing states there is a “bonus scheme in place” and the role can pay up to “£23,000 - £30,000” a year, depending on the routes worked.

‘20% more online deliveries than in 2019’

DPD boss Dwain McDonald described the effect lockdown had on online sales, saying, "Since this began, we have been handling parcel volumes more akin to the festive seasonal peak than this time of year.”

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Kingfisher, the firm that owns both B&Q and Screwfix, said online sales had more than tripled between the first two full months of lockdown.

The management consultancy firm McKinsey & Company revealed that parcel deliveries increased by as much as 40 per cent since the start of lockdown.

The firm also predicted that there will be a 20% annual increase in deliveries compared to 2019, despite online orders slowing down as retail stores reopen.

"We expect some of the online surge for the retail sector to stick but not at the levels seen at the start of the lockdown," said Florian Neuhaus, a McKinsey partner.

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