Amazon keeps up UK investment push despite Brexit

Online retailer Amazon said on Thursday it would create more than 300 new jobs next year when it opens a distribution centre in central England, maintaining a wave of investment in Britain.

Plans for the centre in Daventry follow announcements in August that the firm will open fulfilment facilities in Tilbury, southeast England, and Doncaster, northern England in 2017, creating 2,000 jobs.

The new jobs in Daventry, Tilbury and Doncaster are in addition to the 3,500 it expects to create in Britain in 2016, spanning head office, research and development centres, customer service centres, a fashion photography studio, Amazon Web Services and distribution centres.

Customer demand

Those jobs will take Amazon’s total full-time permanent UK employees to more than 15,500 by the end of 2016.

Amazon is increasing the size of its UK distribution network to meet customer demand, driven in part by the 40 per cent growth last year in the number of independent businesses selling on Amazon and using its fulfilment services.

Amazon's new UK manager Doug Gurr said in July Britain's decision to leave the European Union had not affected its investment plans for the country.

The firm said it has invested more than 4.6 billion in the UK since 2010.

– (Reuters)