If you are watching or reading the news with growing fears over the supply of Christmas presents for the festivities, worry not because the SS John Lewis has set sail to save Christmas for everyone!
The popular retailer is chartering a fleet of vessels to help speed up the delivery of its Christmas stock to arrive in time for a boom in festive season sales.
That means that everything from artificial Christmas trees and decorations to Christmas tree lights will be brought home ready to be stocked.
The department store is also hiring 7,000 extra staff for the festivities to help shoppers during peak Christmas demand.
Shortage of Christmas presents
With fears growing over the supply of Christmas presents to the UK, popular retailer John Lewis has chartered ships to bring stocks home.
The popular retailer produces a popular Christmas TV commercial every year that many people look forward to, may also have been nudged into action because of fears of a shortage of Christmas presents and price hikes as logistics firms struggle to bring stock and goods from China to the UK.
John Lewis has teamed up with other retailers to charter the vessels and the firm’s chair, Sharon White, says they are acting ‘hard and fast’ to ensure that they can still deliver a ‘sparkly Christmas to customers’.
And while some retailers are struggling to deliver goods to shops because of a current shortage of HGV drivers, John Lewis, which includes Waitrose, has handed their lorry drivers a hefty pay rise to ensure that they don’t run short of drivers.
Containers packed with Christmas goodies
John Lewis & Partners chair Sharon White.
Ms White also revealed in a BBC interview that shipping containers that are packed with Christmas goodies are being held up in various parts of the world.
She added: “Hopefully, customers will not see anything and so far, we are on track. We don’t see any significant problems.”
Another major issue for retailers in the UK this Christmas is that container and shipping costs have rocketed this year.
In addition, there’s a shortage of containers that are available, so some suppliers and retailers are struggling to find space on ships and containers to bring goods to the country as the supply chain around the world struggles with the Covid pandemic and soaring demand.
But for John Lewis customers, there will be no worries as their Christmas stock arrives in good time because of the fleet of extra ships – and there are plenty of staff to help festive shoppers buy what they need.
