Marks & Spencer and DHL are hiring for the retailer’s new national distribution centre for clothing and home at Welham Green, Hertfordshire that is set to open this summer.
DHL, which operates the centre for M&S, expects to employ a total of 600 staff by the end of this year. At its peak the centre will employ up to 1,000 people – it already has 150 on board. The site will be used to deliver clothing and homewares to more than 98 stores in the South East.
Rob Davies, head of programme delivery at M&S Welham Green, said: “Our new clothing and home distribution centre in Welham Green will not only support our stores in the South East but ensure better availability and choice for our customers. We are really excited to be working with DHL to offer hundreds of jobs to communities in and around Hertfordshire, with each and every colleague recruited playing an important role in making every moment special for M&S customers.”
Mark Defanis, general manager of the new DHL distribution centre, said: “DHL is delighted to be extending its partnership with M&S as it enters the next phase of its journey. The new Welham Green distribution centre offers a variety of exciting roles and great prospects for successful candidates. We urge anyone who’s interested to get in touch.” [search for Hatfield]
M&S said in its 2018 strategic report that the opening of the Welham Green distribution centre was intended to improve its “slow, inefficient and expensive” supply chain. Welham Green, it said, was a step towards a single-tier network of national distribution centres that would enable it to reduce the number of stock-holding points that it operates. Previously, those points meant that store deliveries were slow and that it carried “many weeks more stock than our competitors.” Two existing distribution centres, including in Neasde, are being closed as a result of the Welham Green site opening.
Welham Green will form part of a distribution network of distribution centres and warehouses that includes large sites in Swindon, Castle Donington and Bradford. Together they support its five-year strategy to double the ecommerce share of its clothing and home sales to more than a third, while cutting the amount of in-store space at a similar rate.
Image courtesy of DHL
