Online retailer Amazon may be opening a facility in Sheffield, as plans for a new FBA (fulfilled by Amazon) centre are underway, according to local newspaper The Star.
The new fulfilment centre could sit alongside Junction 34 of the M1, on a former steelworks site, taking up at least half of the 48 acres available. The site is currently owned by Peel Logistics. If the new warehouse goes ahead, a possible 1,000 local jobs could be available, ranging from warehouse operatives to administration staff. The FBA centre would also be fitted with the latest in warehouse packing equipment, sortation tables and packing benches.
The retail giant presently has 16 centres spread across the UK, taking care of Amazon products as well as third party retail products. A receive centre (a central hub that receives and then sorts the millions of products sold on Amazon) is due to open in Coventry. With online shopping increasing demand for products, Amazon has invested £6.4bn since 2010 in its infrastructure, and with the expansion of SMEs being able to sell on Amazon, FBA has also enabled many companies to scale their business.
As a result, a new FBA centre is inevitable in the UK, and it probably will not be the only one to be established this year. Last year saw five billion products delivered worldwide by Amazon, and figures suggest that roughly half of these came from third party sellers, with FBA sales growing at an astonishing rate.
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