Amazon is continuing to broaden its logistics footprint in Europe with new facilities in the UK, France and Spain, following on from recent media speculation over a new in-house delivery programme.
In the UK, Amazon announced on Friday plans to open a new fulfilment centre in Bolton, north-west England, in 2018, creating 1,200 new, full-time permanent jobs. Staff will pick, pack and ship customer items such as books, toys and kitchenware. The new Bolton facility, its third in the region, will also be equipped with advanced Amazon Robotics technology to support human workers. The robots slide under a tower of shelves where products are stowed, lift it and move it through the fulfilment centre.
“Our ability to expand in the North West of England is the result of two things: incredible customers and an outstanding workforce,” said Stefano Perego, Amazon’s Director of UK Customer Fulfilment. “We are thrilled to begin recruitment for 1,200 new permanent roles in Bolton with competitive wages and comprehensive benefits starting on day one.”
Last year Amazon announced that it would open fulfilment centres in Daventry, Doncaster, Warrington and Tilbury in 2017, creating more than 3,500 new permanent full time jobs. The Daventry site opened in February while Doncaster, Warrington and Tilbury have recently started their operations.
Amazon currently has 16 fulfilment centres in the UK. As well as sites which have recently opened in Warrington, Tilbury and a new site in Doncaster, there are two further fulfilment centres in Doncaster and one each in Coalville (Leicestershire), Daventry, Dunfermline, Dunstable, Gourock, Hemel Hempstead, Manchester, Milton Keynes, Peterborough, Rugeley and Swansea Bay. A UK receive centre will also open in Coventry in 2018 and act as a central hub to receive and sort millions of products sold on Amazon.co.uk each year.
Amazon said it is increasing the size of its UK fulfilment centre network to meet increasing customer demands, expand selection and enable SMEs selling on Amazon Marketplace to scale their business.
In France, President Emmanuel Macron officially opened the company’s new distribution center in Boves, near Amiens in northern France, at the start of October, its fifth such facility in France. The 107,000 sqm Boves facility, which went into operation in September, will create 500 permanent jobs in the next three years.
In parallel, Amazon announced it would open a sixth distribution center in France in Brétigny-sur-Orge (Essonne) next year. Located about 30km south of Paris, this new site will create 1,000 permanent full-time positions within three years of its opening. The center of Brétigny-sur-Orge, covering an area of 142,000 sqm on a former airbase, will be the biggest Amazon site in France in terms of available storage capacity and will bring the number of distribution centers to six.
"We are confident that this investment will benefit both our customers and the local economy," said Roy Perticucci, Amazon’s Vice President Europe Customer Fulfillment. "This new site will be integrated into Amazon's logistics network, which allows us to fulfill the promise of reliable and fast delivery made to our customers in France and Europe. It is this same network that provides French companies using the Amazon Marketplace the opportunity to reach millions of customers across Europe. "
To date, Amazon's logistics network includes five distribution centers in France: Saran (Loiret), the company's first distribution center in France in 2007; in Montelimar (Drôme), Lauwin-Planque (Nord), Sevrey (Saône-et-Loire) and Boves (Somme). In addition to these five sites, the Amazon city distribution center in Paris allows ultra-fast deliveries to Amazon Prime customers in the capital and 21 municipalities in the near suburbs of Paris via the Prime Now service.
Meanwhile, Amazon has reportedly approached major French supermarket group Leclerc over a logistics partnership or an agreement to use its network of physical stores, according to French newspaper Le Monde. The report said Amazon approached French distributors to seek possible partnerships or make an acquisition in France.
In Spain, Amazon has started operations of its delivery station in Alcobendas, Madrid, which will add capacity and flexibility to its operations in Spain to provide faster deliveries to its customers. The new 15,000 sqm delivery station, creating around 80 direct jobs in the coming year, will enable local and regional carriers to provide faster delivery of customer orders from Amazon. Furthermore, Amazon’s partner carriers will optimize time of delivery by using sophisticated software to recommend delivery routes and take into account several variables, including speed limits and daily traffic patterns.
John Tagawa, VP EU Amazon Logistics, said: “Our new Alcobendas station strengthens our delivery network in Spain, enabling us to meet the delivery needs of customers and support all companies that sell their products at Amazon. This also helps independent local delivery companies to grow their businesses as we provide them with state of the art technology to deliver Amazon orders.”
Amazon’s fulfilment network in Spain includes the San Fernando de Henares (Madrid) Fulfilment Centre, and a site in Castellbisbal (Barcelona) dedicated to Amazon Pantry. The company will open new fulfilment centres in El Prat (Barcelona) this fall, in Martorelles (Barcelona) and Getafe (Madrid) by autumn 2017 and in Illescas (Toledo) by autumn 2018.
Furthermore, Amazon is operating two urban fulfilment centres in Madrid and Barcelona to provide ultra-fast deliveries to its Prime customers in these cities through its Prime Now service. Amazon recently announced the opening of its new delivery stations in Getafe (Madrid), Paterna (Valencia) and Seville (Andalucía) to strengthen delivery services for customers and sellers.
Meanwhile, in the US, media claimed earlier this month that the e-commerce giant is testing a new logistics programme for third-party sellers called Seller Flex. Bloomberg reported that the ‘new delivery service’ is intended to make more products available for free two-day delivery and relieve overcrowding in its warehouses. The service began two years ago in India, and Amazon has been slowly marketing it to U.S. merchants in preparation for a national expansion, according to the report.
However, Amazon reportedly responded by underlining that deliveries would continue to be made by its main US delivery partners. “We are using the same carrier partners to offer this program that we’ve used for years, including UPS, USPS and FedEx,” the company stated.
