European delivery firm to invest £100m in capacity expansion, including 10,500 more workers, as parcel volumes surge amid the continuing pandemic-driven e-commerce boom.
Hermes is planning to increase its UK workforce by close to 50% and will invest about £100 million this year to expand capacity as parcel volumes surge amid the continuing pandemic-driven e-commerce boom.
The company aims to add about 1,500 full-time staff to its current 4,500 employees, including warehouse workers, drivers, managers and supervisors. It also hopes to sign up about 9,000 more self-employed couriers in addition to the 20,000 people who deliver Hermes parcels in the UK at present. Recruitment is starting now in advance of the busy peak season.
Hermes UK’s CEO Martijn de Lange commented “The pandemic has expedited the already phenomenal growth of online shopping and we see no sign of this changing. As a result, it is important that we have the right infrastructure and people in place to support this.
“This is good news for the many people who have sadly had their income affected and we are pleased to be able to support the UK economy with so many jobs at this time. We look forward to welcoming our new recruits over the coming weeks.”
In parallel, Hermes has earmarked the investment of about £100 million in the expansion of capacity this year as volumes grow at high double-digit rates following the strong growth in e-commerce in the UK during and after the pandemic lockdown. The investment will be used to strengthen the company’s infrastructure to enable it to handle its predicted parcels volumes of 3.5 million each day during the Black Friday and Christmas period – almost double last year’s levels.
Source: lloyd’s
