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“Everybody wants to bring their goods here and store them close in the Southern California market, banking on the fact that this is going to get resolved in the next 30 to 60 days.”

Mr Niccol highlighted that taking on more staff would mean higher costs but said he was "banking on some growth to come with the investment".

The report comes as the Post Office announced a renewed deal with banks to ensure customers can access basic banking services at post office counters.

Lloyd Greif, CEO of Los Angeles investment banking firm Greif & Co., who represented the family of owners, said the sale was part of an estate planning process to secure the future of the business.

Morrisons faced huge problems with its Christmas orders last year, while Barclays and Lloyds were both hit by banking outages in the first two months of this year.