Daventry supermarket staff take starring role in new documenatary series

Channel 5’s 'Inside Tesco 24/7' features Matt Gill, depot manager from Tesco’s Daventry Distribution Centre.

He shares his experiences of working for Britain’s biggest retailer during their busiest year yet and shares some insight into the sheer scale of the operation

The three-part series on Channel 5 charts the hundred-year history of Tesco, as well as giving viewers a glimpse of how it serves millions of customers every day of the week and introducing some of the colleagues who help make it all happen.

Viewers will also meet Anita Kaczmarek and Kristie Steel, who both work at Daventry Distribution Centre.

Anita Kaczmarek is one of the 16,500 people working in distribution and has been a picker at the centre since 2011. In a typical day, Anita picks about 2,000 units and travels an impressive 10 miles.

During the episode Anita discusses how her job helps to keep her fit, with thousands of steps achieved, picking stock each day. Anita even admits to wearing ankle weights to work as a fitness challenging whilst doing the day job.

With a love for fast-paced music, Anita shares her enjoyment for the distribution centre playlists, which helps her to get moving quicker and pick even faster.

Graduate trainee Kristie Steel is one of the newest recruits at Daventry. Working within different departments, Kristie has developed a range of new skills, one of which included learning how to pick.

Within the episode Kristie practises her manoeuvres, driving an electric low-level order picker, which she admits is more challenging than it looks.

Kristie said: “The pickers make it look so easy. Watching everybody chicane through the aisles I thought, I can do that and then I got on the thing and I realised how much harder it is.”

Like many of the senior management team at Tesco who started working as graduate trainees, Kristie will do 2 years on the ground in the business, providing her with an in-depth overview of how the leading retailer operates.

Since filming the documentary, Kristie has gone from strength to strength, progressing in her role and now managing a team of people.

Matt has worked for Tesco for 20years. His current role includes overseeing the smooth flow of stock from suppliers, processing orders and ensuring the prompt arrival of products to store.

He said: “I enjoyed making the documentary and giving people the chance to understand more about our roles within Tesco. Many of my friends that watched the first episode and said it was really eye-opening to see what goes on behind the scenes. A lot of people have told me how grateful they are for people like us who continued our efforts over the lockdowns to support the local people as much as possible which is a great feeling.”

“I really enjoy my job, and particularly the interaction with all of my colleagues at the depot. We have such a great, hardworking team consisting of around 1,800 people. During the pandemic we were taking on around 100 new staff members each week.

“Keeping the shelves stocked in 3,627 shops requires a distribution network of epic proportions. In a full year we would deliver 206million cases to our customers and stores. Each of Tesco’s stores around the UK gets its own unique daily delivery. Similar to the other 22 Tesco distribution centres around Britain, Daventry is a 24/7 operation.

"We’re only actually shut for 48 hours across the whole year.

Episode one of 'Inside Tesco 24/7' is available now on Demand5. Episode two is tonight at 7pm on Channel 5 with the final episode airing on Wednesday, June 30, at 7pm