Starbucks on hiring spree for 400 new jobs across UK as demand revives
High Street giant Starbucks has launched a hiring spree for 400 roles as the coffee chain has been buoyed by the easing of pandemic restrictions.
Positions will be available across almost 200 sites including city-centre, suburban high street and drive-thru locations as it builds its workforce to deal with higher demand.
Starbucks, which currently employs 3,664 staff across the UK, said some roles will also be in drive-thru locations.
The chain expanded its drive-thru and delivery options to meet customer demand as dine-in options were restricted by public health policy.
Busy summer ahead
The company, which was founded in Seattle 50 years ago, said it is recruiting new staff members across the UK in anticipation of a busy summer period.
Starbucks said it did not make any redundancies or take furlough support after the pandemic struck its UK operations.
It said its new hiring plans will primarily fill “natural vacancies” from staff choosing to leave the business who were not replaced while it was strangled by virus curbs. It said that around 98 per cent of its estate is currently operational.
New jobs have been created at a wide variety of UK towns and cities including Aberdeen, Cardiff, Coventry, Winchester, Sheffield, Leeds, Dundee, Birmingham, Derby and Newcastle.
“It has been incredibly difficult to be a high-street retailer in the last year as the Covid-19 pandemic has placed operating restrictions on our business which have impacted our profitability dramatically,” Alex Rayner, general manager at Starbucks UK, told City PM this morning.
“But our priority the entire time has been to keep our people employed, avoid making redundancies in our company-operated stores and be prepared to safely re-open as restrictions ease.”