Amazon is opening its 13th UK fulfilment centre as it expands its network to meet customer demand. The new centre, at Tilbury, Essex, will feature robotic technology that has been shown to speed up the time it takes to process an order while cutting the amount of space needed for storage.
That’s important when Amazon, an Elite retailer in IRUK Top500 research, is widening its product range from more than 150m lines. At the same time its third-party Fulfilment by Amazon service is being taken up by more marketplace sellers, and expansion will also provide more space for that.
“We are excited to announce that we will be opening our 13th fulfilment centre in the UK in Tilbury in spring 2017 to enable us to continue to expand our product selection, support more third party sellers including small businesses with our fulfilment expertise and meet growing customer demand in the UK,” said John Tagawa, Amazon’s vice president of UK operations.
He said the use of Amazon Robotics technology was “the newest example of our commitment to invention in logistics on behalf of our employees and our customers”. The robots slide under a tower of product storage shelves to lift it through the fulfilment centre. Amazon says the robots help speed order processing time and reduce walking time by moving the shelves to employees, reducing the time taken to store inventory or pick t for new customer orders. They also save significant amounts of space: Amazon says 50% more items can be stored per square foot.
The new centre will have more than 1,500 staff when it opens in 2017, adding to a payroll that by the end of this year will include more than 15,500 people. The announcement comes shortly after news of a Doncaster centre, employing 500 people, that will also open next year.
