Morrisons creates 1,000 new jobs to expand Amazon Prime service

Morrisons is creating more than 1,000 permanent jobs to fulfil orders for its services on Amazon.

The supermarket said it is hiring the extra staff to pick and pack customer orders from more than 50 stores, covering most major UK cities and many towns.

Grocers have been launching new ways to win customers during the Covid-19 pandemic, benefitting from lockdown and the slump in the restaurant and pub trade.

The move follows similar job creation plans by other supermarkets including Aldi, Tesco and Iceland, although it does little to offset the 125,000 jobs lost in the sector so far this year.

Morrisons does not have the same footprint as its larger rivals and does not have a convenience store portfolio, so bosses have been forced to find other ways to win new business.

The supermarket launched a deal with Amazon for delivery of store cupboard products, in addition to offering its own online service following a deal with Ocado.

During the pandemic – along with rivals – it launched services with Deliveroo and increased its work with the online food platform’s shareholder Amazon.

Through Amazon, Morrisons launched a Prime delivery service where shoppers can place orders to be picked and delivered in around 30 minutes.

The new jobs will fill positions to allow more orders to be placed.

On Monday the supermarket also revealed it had launched a new service to offer food boxes to students forced to self-isolate at university.

Earlier this year Morrisons revealed it had taken on 45,000 extra staff when coronavirus hit the UK, with 25,000 still in post. Around 6,000 had already been given permanent contracts.

Tesco has announced 16,000 permanent extra positions, Amazon 7,000 roles and delivery firms DPD and Hermes have also hired new recruits.