Amazon creates 1,000 jobs at UK distribution centres

14-Oct-2014 - Last updated on 16-Oct-2014 at 12:01 GMT

Amazon fresh and frozen food delivered to your doorstep? The retailer is testing fresh and frozen deliveries in the US, ahead of a possible global launch

Online retail giant Amazon is to create 1,000 new jobs at UK fulfilment centres, six months after a leading UK wholesale boss predicted the retailer would deliver “a fresh approach” to the UK grocery market.

Amazon announced the new jobs earlier this week (Monday October 13) in response to growing demand for its products – including ambient food and drink products – in the UK.

The online retailer’s UK director of operations John Tagawa said: “Over the past two years, we have added well in excess of 2,000 new employees to our workforce and we are delighted to be able to add a further 1,000 to that number over the coming months.

“We have continued to focus day in, day out on providing the very best shopping experience for our customers and as we see greater demand, we are able to rapidly grow our talented team across the UK.”

6,000 permanent staff

The new employees will join the 6,000 permanent staff employed by Amazon at fulfilment and customer service centres across the UK. The business operates eight fulfilment centres at: Doncaster, Dunfermline, Gourock, Hemel Hempstead, Milton Keynes, Peterborough, Rugeley and Swansea Bay.

More than £1bn had been invested in UK operations to date, said the retailer.

Earlier this year Sunday delivery was made available in seven cities, while more than 1M products in Amazon’s European fulfilment centres outside the country have been made available for two-day delivery to the UK.

Meanwhile, Amazon was poised to deliver “a fresh approach” to the UK grocery market, with online sales of fresh, chilled, frozen and ambient food products delivered direct to customers, predicted Charles Wilson, Booker chief executive earlier this year.

“In the UK, Amazon is selling ambient groceries but in Seattle they offer the full fresh and frozen offer,” Wilson told the City Food Lecture audience in London last March. “I’m excited that Amazon will bring a fresh approach to the grocery trade here in the UK.”

Possible global launch

Speaking at the same event, Doug Gurr, Amazon UK vice president, confirmed that the retailer’s full range of food formats was now being rolled out across north America, after a successful eight-year trial in Seattle ahead of a possible global launch.

“We have just started rolling that out across America and it is now available on the West Coast,” said Gurr. “This is not a forward statement of plans because we do not make those. But if you look at the history of what Amazon tends to do, our model tends to be to take something and to try really hard to make it work and then, when we think we have got it right, start rolling it out.”

Amazon was unable to confirm whether or not its latest recruitment drive was linked to a stepping up of its food and drink offer to UK consumers.

For the latest jobs in food and drink manufacturing, visit FoodManJobs.