The John Lewis Partnership has announced that it has begun its “biggest ever seasonal recruitment campaign” in anticipation of demand during peak trading.

It is looking to fill 13,700 seasonal roles, including 3,000 across 35 John Lewis branches, 8,500 within Waitrose 315 shops and nearly 2,200 across the retailer’s distribution centres and supply chain network. 

Commenting on its recruitment drive, Jo Rackham, Chief People Officer for the John Lewis Partnership, said: “We’ve invested heavily to set ourselves up for a great golden quarter, but our excellent service also relies on having brilliant Partners on hand, whenever and wherever our customers need them.”

During the peak trading period, John Lewis says it expects over 30million visitors to its shops and approximately 180million visits to its website with its distribution centres dispatching more than two deliveries each second.

In the week leading up to Christmas, Waitrose Partners will pick and deliver over 8million cases of products to its shops for customers preparing to celebrate.