Grofers hires 5000 employees to cater increasing demand

Online grocery retailer Grofers has hired 5000 employees in its warehousing and front-end operations to cater growing demand, a top official said on Wednesday.

The online grocery startup is also planning to expand its footprints in the tier-II cities next year and will later evaluate whether the retailer will go into the territories of Jammu and Kashmir, the company official said.

"We are growing strong and have added 5,000 employees in the warehousing and front-end operations, ahead of our second Grand Orange Bag Days (GOBD) sale from August 10 to 18," Grofers founder Saurabh Kumar told PTI.

They will mostly be engaged in 15 new warehouses and help increasing its delivery staff strength, he said.

"We are also planning to expand in the tier-II cities next year and then territories of Jammu and Kashmir will be evaluated," Kumar said.

Grofers hired around 400 women employees keeping the demand for GOBD, a customer acquisition strategy, in mind, he said adding the retailer has all-women warehouses in Bangalore and will have such storehouses soon in Gurgaon before extending it to Kolkata.

At present, the company has 45 warehouses to feed 16 cities across the country.

"During the first edition of the GOBD sale in January this year, the company had acquired 2.5 lakh new consumers to online grocery shopping. It sold 1.81 crore items worth Rs 207.5 crore," Kumar said.

He said the retailer is expecting to acquire 3 lakh new customers in the upcoming sale.

Grofers was pursuing profitability by consolidating its operations and focusing on doubling its sales to Rs 5,000 crore in the fiscal 2019-20.