Amazon to create 1,000 jobs with new Manchester distribution centre

Amazon is poised to being recruiting for 1,000 new jobs at a new distribution centre in Manchester, taking its expected hiring across the UK to 2,500 in 2016.

The giant US online retailer, which late last month agreed a new grocery supply agreement with Morrisons, said the 1,000 new permanent jobs in Manchester would be created over the coming three years.

Amazon also said in February it would open another, smaller fulfillment centre in Leicestershire in the autumn, which will require 500 new roles.

Roles in Manchester will include engineers, computing staff, human resources and operation managers, while Amazon said it was also hiring up and down the country at its head office, research and development centres, customer service centres, Fashion Photography Studio and new Amazon Web Services (AWS) UK data centres, which are currently being built in the UK.

The company's plans will bringing its total workforce to 14,500 in the UK, part of a 40,000-strong workforce in Europe.

John Tagawa, Amazon’s Vice President of UK Operations, said it was the company's first fulfilment centre in the North West of England.

Amazon has ten fulfillment centres in the UK, including two in Doncaster and one each in Dunfermline, Dunstable, Gourock, Hemel Hempstead, Milton Keynes, Peterborough, Rugeley and Swansea Bay. Two of these centres opened in 2015.