Ocado And Morrisons Prepare For Massive Growth Push With 1,000 New Staff

Ocado has launched a massive recruitment drive as it seeks to shore up growth plans for itself and partner Morrisons.

It wants to hire more than 1,000 staff to work at its Dordon centre in Warwickshire, which it shares with Morrisons, as well as its satellite distribution hubs in Wimbledon and Ruislip. It is also recruiting for new projects being worked on at its Hatfield head office.

The recruitment drive has been taken as an indication that the Morrisons push into the Southeast is on the verge of fruition. Morrisons, whose dotcom delivery division is run by Ocado, launched in January but currently only delivers into the Midlands from Dordon and the North via satellites in cities such as Leeds.

So far it has only said its London service will launch 'this summer'.

It is also understood that the new staff will include dozens of technical managers and support staff that will work on upgrading existing sites and new non-food sites.

Sources said Ocado is billing some of the roles to applicants as 'start-up' positions that will aim to help build websites from scratch. It already has one non-food web site with Fetch, targeting pet owners, but aims to have several more.

Ocado said about 800 of the roles will be in the massive distribution hub in Dordon. About 100 more staff are needed at the new hub in Ruislip and 80 in Wimbledon for drivers.

But 100 other roles will be based in its 'technology division' at its head office at Hatfield - including software engineers, tech professionals and technicians.

It said in a statement that the new staff will 'drive Ocado’s game-changing innovation into robotics, machine learning, cloud development and big data, whilst preparing for international expansion.'

Others will include office and operational support staff, analysts, project managers, buyers, human resources professionals and many more.

Julie Markey, HR director at Ocado, said: 'In just a few short years Ocado has grown from a tiny start-up to a company worth over £2.5 billion and we’re delighted to announce the creation of 1,000 new jobs as we continue to develop our business here in the UK and abroad.'

She said: 'Every role is critical to our success, from keeping our website running smoothly, to packing groceries and delivering them into our customers’ kitchens. People can shape their own future; in fact many of those who joined our Dordon team last year have already developed into managerial, engineering or training roles.'