Getir to spend £100m, add 6,000 jobs in UK this year

Hurried grocery delivery firm Getir took the wraps off bold UK expansion plans on Monday, involving up to 6,000 new jobs.

The Independent reported that the Turkish company, which specialises in grocery delivery times measured in minutes, now covers 20 places across the UK and counts 4,000 workers, following its launch in London at the start of 2021.

It expanded further in November, with the acquisition of startup UK competitor Weezy.

On Monday, Getir said its plans would see it have a headcount of 10,000 people by the end of this year - all directly employed and paid a “real living wage”.

The company said it was planning to spend £100m on expanding its UK operation, as it launched in its newest market of Wolverhampton.

“2021 was an extremely successful year for Getir as we began our global expansion,” said Getir’s regional general manager Turanca Salur.

“From only five stores when we opened a year ago, we now serve our customers from 115 stores which have created thousands of jobs – all from the area surrounding our stores.

“We have beaten all expectations for 2021 and plan to go even further this year; if there is demand out there, we’ll be ready to serve it.”

Getir is one of a number of names vying for dominance in the newly-popular instant grocery delivery space, with London-based Jiffy raising $28m in a series A round in September, just five months after its launch, and German outfit Gorillas signing a massive deal with Tesco in October.

Demand for get-it-soon groceries has rocketed in the wake of the first Covid-19 lockdowns in 2020, although the space is not exactly new, with some of the big four grocers attempting such services earlier in the 2010s.

Tesco rolled out its ‘Tesco Now’ service in London in 2017, before shuttering it in 2019 for lack of demand.

Sainsbury’s ‘Chop Chop’ offer, meanwhile, bobbed along without much fanfare after its launch in the capital in 2016, before getting a spit-and-polish for expansion in 2020 as lockdowns saw demand for delivery services explode.