LONDON (Reuters) – British supermarket group Morrisons <MRW.L> is creating more than 1,000 jobs to pick and pack orders for its services on Amazon <AMZN.O>, it said on Wednesday.
Morrisons said it was recruiting the additional workers to process customer orders from over 50 stores, covering most of the United Kingdom’s major cities and many towns.
All of Britain’s big four grocers – market leader Tesco <TSCO.L>, Sainsbury’s <SBRY.L>, Asda <WMT.N> and Morrisons – are adding capacity to their online home delivery operations to meet increased demand during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Online shopping has gone from around 7% of the total UK grocery market at the start of the crisis to about 15% currently and pure online player Ocado <OCDO.L> reckons it could reach 30% over the next few years.
Last month Amazon expanded its relationship with Morrisons so Prime members have access to its full range on the internet giant’s main website.
Amazon and Morrisons have had a tie-up since 2016 and have been steadily growing their links, leading to speculation that the U.S. group could even emerge as a possible bidder for Britain’s No. 4 supermarket chain.
(Reporting by James Davey; editing by Kate Holton)
