Iceland creates 3000 new jobs amid online boom

Iceland delivery van. Iceland press photo
Iceland, like many other grocers, meets a big increase in online shopping. One important driver is of course Covid19, but Iceland’s chief digital officer, David Devany, believes online shopping will be strong also after the Corona crisis is under control. Photo: Iceland Press photo
By Reidar Molthe

15 September 2020 10:54

Iceland creates 3000 new jobs amid online boom

Iceland, the British frozen discount grocer hires 3000 new workers amid online boom. Trial with food delivery platform Uber Eats has also been launched in London, with plans for a larger rollout if successful.

Top management has revealed that online orders surged by more than 300 per cent since April as shoppers rushed to book delivery slots and all non-essential retailers shut their doors due to the pandemic.

The new jobs include extra delivery drivers and more staff in stores for picking online orders, writes Elias Jahsan in Retail Gazette, a business magazine.

750,000 orders a week

Iceland’s job announcement follows similar moves from rivals hoping to benefit from the accelerated move to online shopping.

Before lockdown, Iceland had a minor online operation, compared with most of its competitors. However, since then its online orders soared four-fold. Ramping up changes; Iceland now can handle 750,000 orders every week.

Grocers are keen to increase their online capacity because many hopes the costs involved in each order can be reduced as the number of orders grows. Iceland underline that its delivery fleet is increasing by 30 per cent and a trial in Hackney, North London, with Uber Eats will allow customers to place and receive orders in 20 minutes.

“We have been blown away by the demand for deliveries over the past six months with a four-fold increase in online orders since the beginning of lockdown,” Iceland chief digital officer David Devany says.

“We have seen no sign of a slowdown in the demand for deliveries in the run up to Christmas, so a recruitment drive for more permanent staff is essential. Our store and delivery colleagues have gone above and beyond during lockdown introducing incredible measures to help their local communities, and I am proud that our business has been able to adapt to the changing needs of our customer.”

In Norway Iceland runs five stores in the Oslo area. In online business (still very small) they cooperate with www.kolonial.no, tells one of the founders in Norway, Geir Myklebust.

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