Best offices in Sunderland city centre? We take a tour of Just Eat with stadium scoreboard views
Did somebody say...just look at those views!
They’re a household name in Britain that’s just delivered its 2 billionth item, but did you know one of Just Eat’s main bases is right here in Sunderland, in one of the city centre’s best spots no less?
Just before Christmas, the online delivery giant relocated to Maker, one half of the Maker & Faber office blocks on Riverside Sunderland, which is helping change the face of the city centre.
It’s one of three Just Eat bases in the country, with 18,000 sq ft of office space, housing workspaces for up to 400 staff at the customer services hub.
Built with the aim of attracting more businesses into the city centre, Maker and Faber are state-of-the-art office spaces and, from the fifth floor, Just Eat staff have a games area with pool table and dart board looking out to the Stadium of Light - including the scoreboard - and offices and terrace looking onto Keel Crossing and down the River Wear as it meanders out to sea.
500 items are ordered via Just Eat in every minute of every day and the Sunderland base is where everything from customer complaints to building partner platforms happens, with meeting rooms named Cheesy Chips, Roker Pork and more in a culinary nod to the city.
It’s a vibrant and modern space - with of course plenty of food benefits including an £8 food allowance for staff to spend in the city centre each day - and one befitting a company that’s investing heavily in technology, with the recent addition of a fleet of Just Eat robots becoming the talk of the town.
In total, there’s 20 robots in the city who deliver short journey jobs for 11 independent partners, including the likes of Koji, Babaji, Crave and Wings ‘N’ More.
Robot deliveries are on option on the Just Eat app, where the distance allows, and so far Wings ‘N’ More has made the most deliveries via robot in Sunderland.
Designed by Starship Technologies, the robots are part of a trial to see how Just Eat can boost its delivery options, but Andy Washington, VP of commercial at Just Eat, say it’s going well so far.
“Yes, the robots are quirky and have personality, but they’re also a way of us adapting to customers’ wants and needs,” he said. “The younger generation especially demand quick delivery and it’s exciting to see how this technology can evolve as it becomes quicker and smarter.
“We aim to deliver within 30 minutes and this technology allows us to expand our network.”
Aside from having a base here, Sunderland was already one of Just Eat’s biggest markets, with a good breadth of restaurants, which is why it was chosen for one of the few robot trials in the country.
Andy says no courier jobs have been lost by robots, which are aimed at helping service and supplement the growing demand for their delivery services, which has branched into supermarket and pharmacy deliveries in recent years.
Feedback is a big part of the trial to see if the robots will become a permanent fixture on city streets.
“We really welcome the feedback from our partners,” said Andy. “We want to make sure our operations are meeting standards, which is good quality food delivered at the right time, in the right location, without problems.
“Local independents can’t invest millions in technology. But we can, to help them get their product to market.”
‘This was the jewel in the crown of anything we’d seen’
Just Eat first moved into Sunderland in 2022.
Feeding people’s desire for convenience and restaurant food while restaurants were closed for sit in, the firm had undergone massive growth in the pandemic and moved into offices in Rainton Meadows due to easy links to the airport, the welcome they received here and the existing contact centre work force.
Home to many contact centres, Sunderland has a large amount of people skilled in that field and when Just Eat moved into Rainton House around 40% of the workforce came from NPower, who formerly occupied the building, or subsidiary companies.
“That wasn’t intentional,” explained Just Eat’s Regional Operations Director, Kirsti McKernan who is from Sunderland herself. “But it actually turned out beautifully well because we had great experience, a great set of people who were available and wanted to come to work.
“We had the experts, so all we needed to do then was train and coach them with the Just Eat culture and methodology and the way that we work.”
Over the years, the work has evolved into more than initial contact centre requirements of fielding customer complaints to advising restaurant partners in a range of matters.
With the lease running out on Rainton House and a lot of work being done in other offices in the UK and Europe, not all of its wings were required, so a move was on the cards.
Speaking about how Maker was chosen, Kirsti said: “We had a look around Doxford and then the estates that are on Riverside. We climbed a big set of stairs in this building to the balcony and once up here I thought ‘please let them choose this’ because it was just the absolute jewel in the crown of anything we’d seen.
“I said to my bosses that our team really deserve to be in here.”
Research from the Centre for Economics and Business Research shows the Just Eat contributes £20.8m to the Sunderland economy through its city operations and supports a further £31.7m of value through supply chains and employee spending in the wider economy.
Kirsti added: "We absolutely love Sunderland and as someone from the city I'm proud Just Eat chose this location."