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Ikea Creating 1,200 Jobs With New London, Sheffield & Exeter Stores

30 Nov 2016

Ikea Creating 1,200 Jobs With New London, Sheffield & Exeter Stores

Ikea, the Swedish furniture chain, is creating 1,200 jobs with the opening of new stores in London, Sheffield and Exeter.

The hundreds of new full and part time jobs at Ikea will be filled over the next 18 months and will cover a range of roles including sales and customer services.

Around 700 jobs will be split between Sheffield and Exeter and the other 500 Ikea vacancies will be advertised across the new London store at Greenwich and four smaller trial branches around the UK.

A jobs fair was held to provide details about the 350 Sheffield vacancies towards the end of October but applications were not open at the time. The Sheffield vacancies will now be filled over the coming months, with the new £60 million, 31,500 square metre Ikea store set to open next summer. Details of the Sheffield vacancies will be given on the company’s website when applications open over winter.

Commenting on the Sheffield jobs, a spokesperson for Ikea said, “We are excited to be coming to Sheffield and committed to developing a local workforce. The new store will create around 350 jobs in areas as diverse as sales, customer service, interior design, hospitality and logistics. When it comes to our co-workers, we have a unique view of talent: all co-workers are regarded as talents and everyone’s contribution is important.”

“All vacancies will be advertised on our website, and we encourage applications from anyone with an enthusiastic attitude and a passion for home furnishings,” added the spokesperson.

Leigh Bramall, deputy leader of Sheffield Council, said: “Sheffield has the infrastructure and ambition to successfully attract companies such as Ikea to the city and this will in turn create hundreds of jobs for the local economy. We look forward to working with Ikea as they develop their new store and workforce.”

Ikea pay most of their staff, or what they like to call their ‘co-workers’, the National Living Wage, which is £9.75 in London and £8.45 in other parts of the UK; a strategy which the chain says is a big part of its success in Britain.

Country Retail Manager at Ikea UK & Ireland, Gillian Drakeford, explained the theory:

“Happy coworkers lead to happy customers. For us in retail, our people are our biggest asset. Consumer behaviour is changing. The shopper wants something different from us than they did a few years ago. A customer might search on the web and come better informed to the store and that means I need better informed coworkers who can co create home furnishing solutions.”

“That means I need to take care that we have the right coworkers with the right experience and that they are committed to Ikea. And the Living Wage is one way of securing the right coworkers.”

You can apply for all of the latest full and part time jobs in London, Sheffield and Exeter right here on the e4s student jobs website.

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