Sainsbury’s to hire 900 in London as it launches same-day delivery service

Customers who order by 12pm will be able to pick up their orders from 4pm the same day

Sainsbury’s said it will recruit 900 new employees, including drivers, order pickers and managers at its new centre, in the former Royal Mail building, in Bromley-by-Bow, East London (Sainsbury's)

Sainsbury’s has announced plans to hire 900 employees as it expands its online grocery service and launches same-day delivery.

The supermarket will trial the service at three stores, Streatham Common, Richmond and Brookwood in Surrey. It plans to expand it to 30 outlets by Christmas to meet growing customers demand.

Customers who order by 12pm will be able to pick up their orders from 4pm the same day if they choose to ‘Click & Collect’, or receive their delivery at home from 6pm.

Sainsbury’s customers with a “delivery pass” will not be charged for the trial service. The new service will be free for orders over £100 delivered Monday to Thursday. For others it will be “competitively priced”.

Sainsbury’s said it will recruit 900 new employees, including drivers, order pickers and managers at its new centre, in the former Royal Mail building, in Bromley-by-Bow, East London.

The centre will be dedicated to online orders and is due to open in autumn.

Recruitment has begun for the first 470 jobs with plans to recruit another 430 colleagues by 2020.

Sainsbury’s said online sales grew by nearly 9 per cent last year, while order were up by nearly 15 per cent

Robbie Feather, Sainsbury’s director of online, said demand for the supermarket’s online delivery service is growing.

“We expect this trend to continue as more and more customers enjoy the flexibility of multi-channel shopping using our groceries website and app, in addition to visiting stores.

“Our online orders are currently picked from supermarket stores across the UK and this model will continue, but the Bromley-by-Bow Centre will help us keep pace with demand in London, enabling us to fulfil another 25,000 orders per week,” Feather said.

Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, said the news was “fantastic”.

“The investment is further evidence that London is open and the best city in the world in which to do business,” Khan said.

The news comes a month after Amazon Fresh, has launched its own food delivery service in the UK. The move put further pressure in Britain's big four supermarkets which are already facing a battle against the rise of German discounters Aldi and Lidl, which continue to win customers with their low prices and increased store numbers.

Amazon Fresh has since expanded its from 69 London postcodes to 123.

Bryan Roberts, a retail expert from TCC Global TK-insert comma after title said the news of AmazonFresh coming into the UK is the last thing the big four wanted to hear.

“While there is no cast-iron guarantee of success... I'm tempted to believe that we'll look back on today as something of a disruptive game-changer up there with the entry of Aldi and Lidl,”he said.