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Gloucestershire Business News

B&Q and Screwfix to take on new staff

Kingfisher, the owner of B&Q and Screwfix, is to take on 1,500 to 2,000 new staff in the UK to process a huge surge in online orders.

The new jobs are initially temporary over the summer, as reported by The Guardian.

Retailers in some sectors have been dealing with a rise in demand similar to the peak trading of Black Friday and Christmas, but with a fraction of their normal staff, due to the need for social distancing in warehouses. Around two-thirds of companies are warning customers that deliveries will be delayed, as they don't have enough staff to turn orders around quickly.

Demand for DIY products grew while families were stuck at home in lockdown. Garden sales rose by a massive 288 per cent in April and more than 162 per cent in May compared with last year, while electrical sales doubled and homewares increased by 84 per cent.

These figures are in complete contrast to clothing and footwear sales, which fell by nearly a quarter and a third respectively in March and April and continued to drop in May.

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