Takeaway giant Just Eat announces 1,500 new jobs based in Sunderland
Report by Industry Correspondent Rachel Bullock
Takeaway giant Just Eat has announced it will employ 1,500 people in a new customer service centre in the North East.
The business will invest £100 million in our region over the next five years, with staff working partly from home and partly from the new Sunderland-based office.
300 people are already hired by Just Eat on Wearside, but much of its customer service had been run from Bulgaria and India. Bosses have already seen an increase in customer satisfaction among those who dealt with call handlers from our region.
The North East Chamber of Commerce say this is a huge signal of faith in the region.
Rachel Anderson, North East Chamber of Commerce
The 20,000 square metre office was formerly occupied by Npower in Houghton le Spring.
Just Eat is upgrading the site with a gym, catering area and a lounge.
The company say they are impressed with its existing workforce on Wearside.
"Our experience of operating this model across numerous other geographies around the world, shows that the overall service that we provide to both our customers and restaurants increases very meaningfully," he said.
"We're already seeing a very material increase in customer satisfaction scores from the agents that we already have in Sunderland."
"We absolutely believe in the role that the office environment plays in our culture and in driving innovation as we move forward," Mr Kenny said.
"But equally, we don't want to move fully away from some of the more positive aspects that working from home has brought to people's personal lives and family lives."
He added: "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."UK managing director Andrew Kenny said that Just Eat would shoulder the extra cost of bringing the staff in-house because it allowed the company to provide better service.