EG Group to create 22,700 Jobs in UK over five years

EG Group has announced plans to create about 22,700 UK jobs over a five-year period, driven by a sustained investment in its successful foodservice business.

The group plans to add more than 32,000 jobs globally between January 2022 and December 2026.

In the UK, the group will deliver many of these jobs from rolling out its proprietary brands ‒ Cooplands, the nation’s second-biggest bakery chain, and LEON, the ‘naturally fast food’ brand, both acquired last year ‒ across its forecourt network, new-to-industry (NTI) sites, and EG foodservice concessions at Asda locations.

It will also create a large number of new jobs by accelerating openings for its existing third-party brand partners, notably Starbucks and KFC, including drive-thrus on the group’s UK forecourts and on Asda carparks ‒ with these foodservice outlets operated by EG and its colleagues.

Approximately 9,700 new jobs will come from organic growth in EG’s nine additional markets: Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Australia and the US over the same five-year period.

“As EG continues to go from strength to strength, we will be creating a large number of new jobs over the coming years, particularly in our successful foodservice business ‒ which remains a significant growth opportunity globally. We are proud to be a business founded in Britain that invests in job creation worldwide, while focusing heavily on the training and development of colleagues,” Mohsin Issa and Zuber Issa, co-founders and co-CEOs of EG Group, said.

EG has also unveiled a new growth strategy for Cooplands, the Scarborough-based bakery chain it acquired in October last year. Cooplands will be opening 30 outlets a year through 2026, including cafés inside NTIs and convenience stores on EG forecourt sites.

The group is also committed to rolling out at least 50 LEON restaurants a year through 2026, primarily in the UK, alongside 10 further openings in the Netherlands, ahead of a wider European expansion.

EG this month increased the average hourly pay to £10.05 for UK colleagues, including those at LEON, aged 18 and above. This follows two previous pay rises to over 10,000 UK colleagues in 2021, in recognition of the cost-of-living pressures.

The augmented benefits package for colleagues also includes an increase to the life assurance policy, support via the Company’s Employee Assistance Programme, operational quarterly bonuses, discounts at EG brands and continued access to development, such as professional qualifications.

“EG has a strong track record of providing colleagues with long-term opportunities to progress their career at all levels ‒ and we are passionate about continuing this,” the Issa brothers added.

The latest announcement follows the publication last month of EG Group’s unaudited results for its fiscal 2021, when the group reported a 16.3 per cent increase in adjusted EBITDA to $1.45 billion (£1.16bn), primarily driven by a stand-out performance in foodservice and the further easing of Covid-19 restrictions in many territories.