Just Eat to create over 1,500 new jobs in North East

The new roles will be based in Houghton le Spring, Sunderland.  Overall, Just Eat is investing more than £100m into the region across the next five years which will go towards creating a modern workspace for the team, equipment, training and jobs.

Recruitment is underway with approximately 300 jobs already created to date. A variety of positions from customer service advisors to team leadership, specialist support roles and management are available.

All new customer service employees will take part in a bespoke and comprehensive training programme before they start their new roles at Just Eat. They will also benefit from longer-term career development plans to enable them to build relevant skills and progress within the business.

Employees will have access to a range of benefits and will be based in a new state of the art office in the heart of Sunderland. Equipped with a gym, catering area and a lounge, the space measures at 20,000 square metres, across four floors. Employees will begin working from home with plans to operate a hybrid model in the coming months.

Just Eat's UK customer care team supports its 58,000+ restaurant partners and millions of customers on a wide variety of topics from order enquiries to helping restaurants with their menus. The move will help Just Eat improve overall service by increasing employee engagement and providing greater insight into its partners' and customers' experience of Just Eat.

Andrew Kenny, UK Managing Director at Just Eat, said: "As part of our ongoing investment in our UK business, we're delighted to be creating upwards of a thousand new employment opportunities in our customer care department over the next 12 months. Alongside the launch of our worker model for couriers, this move will help us to bring the very best service to our customers and restaurant partners as demand for food delivery goes from strength to strength in the UK.

"As a platform that covers 95% of UK postcodes, we also know the importance of increasing career opportunities outside of London and the South East. We're pleased to be announcing our commitment to the North East, to help boost the region's economy."

Councillor Graeme Miller, leader of Sunderland City Council, said: "We're thrilled to have supported Just Eat to make its move to Sunderland, joining a dynamic business community and creating jobs and opportunities for people across the city.

"We're very proud of what Sunderland offers as a place to do business, and it is vindication of that offer when brands like Just Eat are drawn to the city thanks to the work of our team and colleagues from Invest North East England and the North East LEP in attracting them.  We're immensely proud of our skilled people and look forward to seeing how they drive the onward success of the Just Eat business."

Andrew Moffat CBE, Chair of the North East LEP Investment Board, added: "Just Eat's commitment to create more than 1,000 jobs in the North East and continue its investment in apprenticeships and long-term career development is great news for Sunderland, and our region.

"Just Eat is a hugely successful, multinational business, and we're delighted to have been able to work with them alongside Invest North East England to support them to help secure the North East as the location to continue their growth journey."

Business Minister Paul Scully said:"It's great to hear Just Eat are delivering for the North East's economy by creating 1000 new jobs, from management to customer service, which will help make the region an even better place to build a career.

"This investment drives forward our plan to level up the whole of the UK, ensuring all our regions and nations thrive as we build back better from the pandemic."

Just Eat's employment boost in the North East builds on the business' new worker model for couriers in the UK, which now has more than 4,500 roles. Initially launched in London, the model has since rolled out to Birmingham, Liverpool, Brighton and Cambridge, with further cities in the pipeline across 2021. All couriers contracted through this model are entitled to hourly pay, minimum/living wage, pension contributions and certain statutory benefits including holiday pay and sick pay.