Britain's EG Group to create over 32,000 jobs globally over 5 years

LONDON (Reuters) - EG Group, the acquisitive British petrol station and food retail business owned by brothers Zuber and Mohsin Issa and private equity group TDR Capital, plans to create over 32,000 jobs globally over five years, it said on Thursday.

The group plans to add about 22,700 jobs in the United Kingdom between January 2022 and December 2026 and about 9,700 in its nine other markets - the United States, Ireland, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Australia.

In the UK, many of the jobs will come from rolling out its bakery chain Cooplands and its fast food brand LEON across EG's petrol forecourt network, and from opening more EG foodservice concessions at Asda supermarket stores. The brothers and TDR also own Asda.

EG plans to open 30 Cooplands outlets a year and at least 50 LEON outlets a year through 2026

It said new jobs will also come from accelerating openings at existing third-party brand partners, notably Starbucks and KFC, including drive-thrus on the group’s UK forecourts and in Asda carparks.

The group, chaired by Stuart Rose, the former boss of Marks & Spencer, has previously been linked with a possible initial public offering (IPO) or a trade sale.

It currently operates from over 6,300 sites, employing more than 50,000.

EG also said it had increased hourly pay for UK staff, aged 18 and over, to 10.05 pounds ($13.10) an hour.

($1 = 0.7673 pounds)

(Reporting by James Davey Editing by William James and Mark Potter)