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Tesco's online expansion generates London jobs

Monday, July 22, 2013 - 16:18 by Mike Price

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Supermarket giant Tesco is investing in a brand new fulfilment centre, designed to help it cater to the growing number of customers who are buying their groceries via safe shopping online.

Based in the London district of Erith, the centre is set to open later this year and should help to create 650 jobs in the area, according to International Supermarket News.

Local MP, Teresa Pearce, said that she welcomed the development thanks to the fact that boosting employment in Erith will help to improve the community as a whole and reduce the number of people who are unemployed and claiming benefits.

As well as having an impact on the economy of this small corner of London, the centre will also mean that more people can take advantage of safe shopping online in a wider part of the city, with the impact of the centre even stretching into North West Kent.

Over the past seven years, Tesco has opened five similar venues in and around the capital, with this latest addition being the sixth to arrive.

Centre spokesperson, Simon Belsham, explained that the growth in online shopping, fuelled by the recent uptake of smartphones and tablets, is making it much more necessary for supermarkets and other high street retailers to cater to the needs of modern British consumers in the e-commerce marketplace.

He also said that the long term unemployed of Erith will be able to benefit from the significant number of jobs that are being created as a result of this new centre being built in the area.

Many supermarkets are spending money to improve their home delivery infrastructures now that more people are ordering their shopping online, rather than heading out to a physical store and pushing around a trolley through the crowds to get it.