Global grocery business Ocado Group has moved into its Sunderland home after the first 30 of 300 new employees took up their new roles.
The ecommerce firm has taken two floors of The Beam, the first building to open its doors on Riverside Sunderland – the former Vaux Brewery site – and started to appoint a range of customer service-based roles.
Staff are beginning to move into the swish new office in the city centre and recruitment is set to continue in 2020, as the business assembles a 300-strong team to support its customer service function.
The centre is an additional hub for Ocado Group, which has a similar operation in Hatfield, and will support the company’s continued growth.
Debbie Wilson, head of service delivery support, said: “It’s wonderful to see our Sunderland team starting to take shape, with the first employees moving into our stunning new office space.
“There were so many things that attracted us to open a facility in Sunderland, but more than anything, the skilled people we believed we could access greatly appealed.
“It’s been fantastic to see all of our hopes being realised – the level of talent here has blown us away, and we’re really looking forward to building on that as we get up to full capacity.”
“We’ll be continuing to grow our team throughout 2020, with announcements to follow in the new year,” added Debbie.
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Sunderland City Council revealed it had attracted Ocado Group to the city last year when the firm committed to a 15-year deal to let the top two floors of the building. Sunderland business, Penshaw View, became the first company to officially move in, taking a large section of the ground floor in the autumn.
Coun Graeme Miller, leader of Sunderland City Council, said: “The Beam is a real flagship building for us, and attracting Ocado Group to move into it was a huge coup. It’s fantastic to see the company moving its team into this stunning new development that was sorely needed in the city centre.
“We were always very confident that Ocado Group would be impressed by the talent and skill of Sunderland people, and I have no doubt that the response they had during the first phase of their recruitment process vindicated their decision to open a base here.
“We look forward to seeing them grow, and get their team up to capacity over the coming months, as their Sunderland operation begins to deliver for them.”
Ocado Group was founded in 2000 and was listed on the stock exchange ten years later.
It is a FTSE 100 business with sales of £1.6bn and employs more 15,000 people across the group.
Last February it announced the creation of an online grocery retail joint venture with Marks & Spencer plc, one of the 海角视频’s leading food and clothing retailers.
The new jobs will provide key customer service support to the deal.