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Sainsbury’s boosts great food offer with six new Food Colleges and 500 new counter colleagues

Sainsbury

22 November 2010

Sainsbury’s has today announced that it is to open six Food Colleges across the UK. The Colleges, which will offer training to colleagues working on the meat, fish, deli, hot food and the cafes, will help Sainsbury’s colleagues deliver the very best food and service to customers.
In addition to this, Sainsbury's has also announced that it
plans to recruit an additional 500 colleagues to work on its
counters and cafes over the next year. This is to meet increased
demand from customers for food from the counters and also the
retailer's ambitious store expansion plans.
Colleagues attending the Colleges will receive in depth training
from a team of experts that covers product knowledge,
knife/preparation skills and practice, sales, customer service and
merchandising. Coaching skills will also be taught to ensure the
training can be cascaded and passed on when colleagues return to
store. Sainsbury's anticipates that over 8,500 colleagues will pass
through the Colleges per year although this could rise to up to
10,000.
Gwyn Burr, Sainsbury's Customer Service and Colleague
Director, said: "Sainsbury's has an unrivalled heritage of
offering fresh food dating back over 141 years and our counters are
an integral part of this. We know from customer feedback that
customers enjoy the great tasting food and really value the great
service they receive on our counters but we were keen to improve
this even further. We believe that the skills that our colleagues
will learn and develop at the Colleges will play a big part in our
future success."
Remarking on the creation of 500 new jobs, Gwyn
said: "I am thrilled to be able to announce the creation
of these new jobs on our counters and cafes, particularly in the
current economic climate. We are proud that Sainsbury's is known as
a great place to work and I am sure that our new colleagues will
enjoy the fast paced and exciting world of retail. I look forward
to welcoming these new colleagues to our stores in the coming
year."
The Food Colleges follow on from the successful opening of
Sainsbury's Bakery College earlier this year. The Bakery College,
located in the Whitworths Mill near Northampton, was an industry
first and has halved the amount of time it takes for Sainsbury's
bakers to complete the Level Two qualification aspect of their
training.
The launch of the Colleges follows the recent news that
Sainsbury's is the first ever food retailer to be awarded Gold
accreditation by 'Investors in People'. This is the highest
possible award and was only granted following interviews with over
2,000 colleagues working in supermarkets, convenience stores,
depots and store support centres.
In October 2008 Sainsbury's became the first company to offer
all of its colleagues the opportunity to gain a nationally
recognised qualification under its 'You Can' initiative.
Sainsbury's target is for You Can to provide over 10,000 colleagues
with job opportunities, skills and qualifications by the end of
2010.
Notes to editors