Despite the vagaries of the economy, fulfilment companies have been gearing up for a busy Christmas peak.

iForce, which claims to be the UK’s leading provider of specialist logistics services such as e-fulfilment and returns logistics, was expecting to take on between 1,800 to 2,000 agency workers this year, and Spark Response has already created 150 temporary jobs to meet the demand of the Christmas rush.

For nine months of the year iForce says it operates with 550 full-time employed staff (referred to as "colleagues"), plus a core team of around 200 agency workers.