Irish Amazon customers to bypass Brexit barriers as it plans Dublin distribution centre

Irish customers of Amazon look set to get many of their orders delivered even faster after the web retail giant moved closer to opening its first Irish fulfilment centre at a business park in Baldonnell, west of Dublin, according to a report from Bloomberg.

The newswire reported on Thursday that Amazon is on the verge of taking a 650,000sq ft unit at the Mountpark logistics centre in Baldonnell. It already operates a delivery warehouse in Rathcoole for Amazon Prime customers, which opened last year. But the Baldonnell deal would be its first proper order fulfilment centre where products are picked and packaged by Amazon staff.

Currently, much of Amazon's orders for Irish customers are fulfilled in the UK before being shipped to Ireland where they are delivered by An Post. Amazon Prime deliveries from the Rathcoole warehouse, meanwhile, are delivered on behalf of the web giant by Zeus Logistics.

The Mountpark/Baldonnell deal, which property industry observers have said is the largest deal of its type in the Irish market, would allow Amazon to bypass the UK and avoid any delays or extra charges due to Brexit trading arrangements.

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Faster

An Post, which handles much of Amazon’s Irish deliveries, welcomed the news that it appears to be opening its first Irish fulfilment centre.

“This is good news for Irish Amazon customers who will get their purchases faster,” said Gillez Fernandez, the commercial director of An Post Commerce.

“By avoiding the Brexit pipeline, Amazon can get their parcels to us in An Post faster for immediate delivery to the customer. We work closely with Amazon who value our logistics and local expertise.”

An Post added that “Amazon continues to be an important customer as we grow our business”.

A source speculated that any small Irish retailers struggling to ramp up their e-commerce and home delivery operations would welcome the move for Amazon to open an Irish fulfilment centre, as they could now just list all their stock on Amazon marketplace and use its logistics system.

It is unclear how many staff the new centre will employ, although a recent fulfilment centre that Amazon opened in the UK was announced as creating 1,000 jobs.

Amazon declined to comment on “rumour or speculation”. - Additional reporting: Bloomberg