Durham-based Workwear Express is recruiting an extra 100 staff after seeing a 30% increase in sales over the past 12 months.
It follows a surge in orders during the Covid-19 pandemic, including workwear for St John Ambulance and Royal Voluntary Service teams working on the vaccination programme.
The new recruitment drive follows expansion of the workforce by more than 100 more staff since March last year, many of whom came from the travel and hospitality sectors that were shut down by the pandemic.
Workwear Express, which currently employs 300 people in the UK, is a leading supplier of personalised workwear, promotional clothing and PPE to the healthcare, industrial and hospitality sectors.
Workwear Express reported a 30% increase in annual sales, explaining that industries such as healthcare and home delivery services had scrambled to adapt to the Covid-19 restrictions, resulting in a booming market for its personalised products.
Since the start of the pandemic, more than 300,000 St John Ambulance volunteers have stepped in to help on hospital wards, on ambulances and by working with the NHS to administer jabs for the vaccination programme.
In addition, every day over 2,000 steward volunteers from the Royal Voluntary Service provide assistance by guiding people at vaccination sites and performing other non-clinical tasks.
Launching the recruitment drive, Steven Curran, CEO of Workwear Express, said: “We are looking forward to onboarding our new recruits. One of our key strengths at Workwear Express is our unique insight into clients’ needs, coupled with offering the best people and innovative technology.
“We empower each and every one of our Workwear Express colleagues and treat them as individuals with fair compensation, generous benefits and a stimulating environment where they can thrive. We believe that when we care about our employees, they will apply the same level of care to our customers. Here at Workwear Express, you’re not just starting a job, you’re starting a career.”
Workwear Express was founded in 1990 by its chairman, Andrew Ward, at the age of 17. Last year, it invested £3 million in a new digital platform and website, launching one of the UK’s first progressive web apps in the sector to improve the customer experience and streamline the buying process.
It maintains a customer base of over 600,000 clients in multiple sectors across its e-commerce, corporate and international divisions and serves businesses in more than 100 different countries.
The company has set itself the objective of becoming Europe’s most successful customised workwear, PPE and promotional clothing provider, with an eye on international expansion, planning to launch in North America later this year.
