DPD has announced the creation of 6,000 new UK jobs and £200 million infrastructure investment as the company bets on the ongoing popularity of online shopping following the COVID-19 lockdown.

The delivery and logistics firm, which has contracts with many of the UK’s leading retailers, will invest to expand its next-day parcel capacity, including £100 million on vehicles, £60 million on 15 new regional depots (10 more than originally planned in 2020) and the remainder on technology.

It will also add 2,500 full-time roles including depot, hub and management positions, and 3,500 new drivers being recruited nationwide. The new jobs will include delivery and HGV drivers, warehouse staff, management positions and support staff, including mechanics.

Before lockdown restrictions were announced in March, the company reported that demand for its seven day, nationwide next-day delivery service had risen significantly as people started increasing their reliance on online shopping.

DPD is forecasting the growth to continue this year, despite shops reopening, as households continue to rely on online deliveries for a greater proportion of their shopping, including food and drink.

Chief executive Dwain McDonald said: "We are experiencing the biggest boom in online retailing in the UK's history and we are making this unprecedented investment in our infrastructure and people to ensure we can continue to meet the high levels of demand for our services.

"DPD has been one of the fastest growing major companies in the UK in the last 10 years, due to the growth in e-commerce, but what we have seen in recent months is potentially a much more significant shift in behaviour, and we believe elements of it will be permanent.

“I do think the High Street will bounce back from where things are now, but we have to base our modelling on our conversations with retailers and their projections," he continued, adding: "It looks like there will remain a much greater reliance on e-commerce in the future - that's going to be our ‘new normal’.”

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