Supermarket chain to recruit 20,000 christmas staff
Sainsbury’s is recruiting its largest number of Christmas staff yet in an effort to prepare for the festive season.
The supermarket giant hopes to employ 20,000 extra people across its 450 stores, 4,000 more than taken on by the group last year.
Staff will be recruited for a range of positions from customer service assistants to checkout operators and shelf fillers.
Human resources director Nigel Broome said: ‘‘At this very busy time we are looking for more people than usual to help us provide a service that is second to none.’’
He said staff would be recruited to start work at the beginning of December, working through to the beginning of January 2002.
They will be joined in-store in the run-up to Christmas by most of Sainsbury’s board, chief executive Sir Peter Davis included.
Sainsbury’s campaign is much larger than its rivals. Tesco, the market leader, plans to recruit 10,500 staff for its 690 stores.
Safeway wants to bring in 10,000 employees for the festive period across its 480 stores, while Asda is looking to bring in 7,000 - about 28 per store.
Asda said the staff would be used for new customer service roles such as car park hosts and other positions such as bag packers and store greeters.
The group, owned by US giant Wal-Mart, has already sold 100% more Christmas sweets than last year and 27% more Christmas nuts and snacks.
Retail personnel director David Smith said: ‘‘Christmas has got off to a great start.’’
