NORTHWICH’S largest employer The Hut Group will create 1,000 new technology jobs in the next three years.

The company, which has its headquarters at Gadbrook Park, is Europe’s fastest growing online retailer after starting up in 2004.

The firm has now announced that it has taken over global technology firm UK2 and will create 1,000 jobs in the north of England over the next three years.

The roles created will be infrastructure roles, AI and machine learning, front-end development, site reliability, mobile app development, and warehouse management systems.

Matthew Moulding, founder and chief executive officer of The Hut Group said: “This is a significant technology investment to support our growth plans and provide a world class proprietary ecommerce platform and infrastructure to increase capacity, speed and resilience for our global customer base.

“We are delighted to welcome UK2 and their highly skilled technology-based team of people to THG.

“The move will also see UK2 become a core part of our Technology proposition within the THG Platform Division, helping us achieve our ambition of becoming a world class platform for technology clients.

“We expect this to be the start of further significant investment in UK technology with a further 1,000 new technology jobs planned over the next three years.”

The acquisition UK2 – which employs more than 200 staff across 26 countries - increases the headcount of technology staff at The Hut Group to more than 600 before the planned 1,000 extra jobs are created.

The group will invest heavily behind the existing UK2 management team and their employee base to support the growth of key brands such as 100TB, while offering UK2’s services to The Hut Group’s existing technology clients including DMGT plc, Nintendo, Unilever, Nectar, Honda, and Elizabeth Arden.