Supermarket Iceland are on the lookout for hundreds more staff to join the company due to a surge in demand from shoppers.

The recruitment drive comes after the chain announced on Tuesday that about 3,000 jobs had been created to cope with the 'huge extra demand' for online groceries since the lockdown in March.

Bosses revealed online orders surged by more than 300 per cent since April as shoppers rushed to book delivery slots and all non-essential retailers shut their doors.

What jobs are Iceland hiring for now - and where?

According to the Iceland Careers website, more than 560 jobs are currently up for grabs  (at the time of writing on September 9).

The roles feature in their head office, Iceland stores, store management, home delivery driving and at sister chain The Food Warehouse, with vacancies right across the country.

The jobs range from retail assistants to cleaners to delivery drivers.

How to apply

Visit https://icelandcareers.co.uk for further details of the roles available where you are.

What else have Iceland been upto this year?

A trial with food delivery platform Uber Eats has also been launched in London, with plans for a larger rollout, if successful.

'Accelerated move to online shopping'

Iceland’s job announcement follows similar moves from rivals, hoping to benefit from the accelerated move to online shopping.

Before lockdown the grocer had a minor online operation, compared with some of its competitors. But since then orders soared four-fold.

Ramping up changes, Iceland revealed it now has the ability to handle 750,000 orders every week.

Grocers are keen to increase their online capacity because many hope the extra costs involved in each order can be reduced as the number of orders grows.

Iceland added its delivery fleet is increasing by 30 per cent and a trial in Hackney, North London, with UberEats will allow customers to place and receive orders in 20 minutes.

What have Iceland said?

David Devany, chief customer and digital officer at Iceland, said: “We’ve been blown away by the demand for deliveries over the past six months with a four-fold increase in online orders since the beginning of lockdown.

“We see no sign of a slowdown in the demand for deliveries in the run up to Christmas, so a recruitment drive for more permanent staff was essential.

“Our store and delivery colleagues have gone above and beyond during lockdown introducing incredible measures to help their local communities, and I’m proud that our business has been able to adapt to the changing needs of our customer.”

What are other supermarket chains doing?

The move comes after Morrisons said it would hire thousands more staff to increase its own online capabilities.

Bosses revealed they took on 45,000 extra staff when coronavirus hit the UK, with 25,000 still in posts.

Around 6,000 have been given permanent contracts and further announcements expected this week.

Elsewhere, Tesco has announced 16,000 permanent extra positions, Amazon 7,000 roles and delivery firms DPD and Hermes have also hired new recruits.