A new £500 million Amazon Robotics fulfilment centre has opened at Gateway45, Leeds. The facility ‘utilises advanced technology across three floors of Amazon Robotics to stow, pick and ship customer orders’.
The building is located close to an Amazon delivery station and an Amazon Robotics sortation centre. It is also less than ten miles from Amazon’s Wakefield fulfilment centre, which has been operational since October 2022.
Richard Thompson, regional director at Amazon, commented: “West Yorkshire is an important region for Amazon, with more than 3,800 small and medium-sized enterprise selling partners, and I am delighted to confirm our ongoing commitment with this £500 million investment in a new, state-of-the-art fulfilment centre in Leeds.
“This new site will create more than 2,000 new jobs, taking our total workforce in the region to more than 4,000 full- and part-time roles, and our investment in the region to more than £1.5 billion since 2010.
“Amazon continues to invest in our buildings and innovative technology to provide our people with some of the most advanced workplaces of their kind in the world, ensuring their wellbeing while delivering for our customers.”
As Thompson alluded to, Amazon claims that the opening of this new fulfilment centre will lead to the employment of ‘more than 2,000’ people by November 2024. The roles set to be created at the site include engineers, HR and IT professionals, healthy and safety specialists and warehouse operatives.
James Mason, CEO of the West & North Yorkshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “This further, significant investment from Amazon is a confirmation of our strategic location for the logistics industry as a whole, and a ringing endorsement for the strength and skillset of the workforce in our region.
“We at the Chamber [of Commerce] welcome the job creation, a significant boost for the region’s economy.”