Amazon is to open a new warehouse in Plymouth creating even more jobs as its UK workforce heads above 30,000.
The multi-national online retailer will create a “delivery station” in the huge building that was home to shopping rival The Range, in Estover, in the north of the city.
The building, in Thornbury Road, will be turned into a 6,000sq m base for Amazon and replace replace a current operation in Broadley Park Road which opened in the summer of 2019 as a temporary facility while Amazon secured a site to meet its longer-term needs.
The Estover building was left vacant when The Range moved its national HQ to a newly constructed bespoke office development at Derriford, also in north Plymouth.
Amazon Logistics said its move is to meet increasing customer demand and is also helping independent delivery companies grow their businesses.
The Seattle-headquartered e-commerce heavyweight said it also adds capacity and flexibility to Amazon’s delivery network and will
provide the “fast and reliable delivery Amazon customers love and trust”.
Packages will be shipped to the delivery station from Amazon “fulfilment and sortation” centres and loaded onto vehicles to be delivered to customers.
Five delivery companies provide services to Amazon in Plymouth using more than 85 drivers who collect parcels from the delivery station and take them to Amazon customers in the Plymouth area.
This will increase to more than 100 when the new delivery station opens, the firm said, and it will also see an increase in the number of permanent Amazon Logistics employees from more than 15 now to about 25.
Those new employees will join more than 30,000 colleagues in vast warehouses, or “fulfillment centers”, as Amazon calls them. There are already 17 of these in the UK.
But the retail juggernaut has been criticised because many workers are in low-skilled and low-paid jobs.
It continues to hit pay dirt, however, and earned US$87billion (£66billon) in sales in the last three months of 2019, well ahead of analyst expectations.
Amazon said is investing in transport infrastructure and innovation to increase supply chain capacity and provide customers with faster delivery options.
The e-commerce leviathan said it also continues to innovate to improve the experience for customers and associates.
Customers benefit from convenient pick-upocations, such as Amazon Locker, and they can now track where their packages are and how many stops the driver has left before the package arrives.
And “Photo on Delivery” shows customer their package was delivered safely, enhancing the experience for those not at home when the delivery happens, the company said.
Technological developments such as intelligent route planning support the associates working at the delivery station and the drivers who deliver parcels to customers, the firm stressed.
Kerry-Anne Lawlor, country director for Amazon Logistics, said: “We are excited to open a delivery station in Plymouth where Amazon’s 20-plus years of operational expertise, technology advancements and investment in transportation infrastructure is enabling faster delivery for customers than ever before seven days a week.”
