AMAZON TO OPEN ITS FIRST FULFILMENT CENTRE IN THE REPUBLIC OF IRELAND

The state-of-the-art fulfilment centre will provide faster delivery for customers across Ireland seven days a week including one-day delivery on hundreds of thousands of items

500 new roles offering competitive pay, comprehensive benefits and a safe work environment for our employees to help meet growing customer demand

A second delivery station will open in Dublin this autumn creating over 20 permanent jobs

Last year Amazon also announced plans to create another 1,000 permanent jobs in Ireland over the next two years bringing its total permanent workforce in the country to over 5,000 people by 2022

DUBLIN – 9 September 2021 – Amazon today announced plans to open its first fulfilment centre in the Republic of Ireland, creating 500 new permanent jobs to help meet customer demand. The state-of-the-art fulfilment centre, which will open spring 2022, will provide faster delivery for customers across Ireland seven days a week, including one-day delivery on hundreds of thousands of items.

The 630,000 square foot centre at Baldonnell Business Park, Dublin, will hold millions of items to be picked, packed and shipped to customers across Ireland as well as the rest of Europe.

Recruitment has started for a range of new roles for the fulfilment centre, including engineers, HR and IT professionals through to health & safety and finance specialists and operations managers.  Recruitment for the Amazon teams who will pick, pack and ship customer orders will begin next year.

A second delivery station will also open at Northwest Logistics Park, Ballycoolin, serving customers in Dublin and the surrounding areas. The delivery station will create over 20 permanent jobs, in addition to dozens of driver opportunities for Amazon Logistics’ delivery service partners and Amazon Flex delivery partners. The 83,500 square foot building is expected to be fully operational this autumn.
The first delivery station in Ireland opened last October in Rathcoole, Dublin, creating more than 20 permanent jobs and working with 10 independent delivery companies who hired more than 150 drivers. Last year Amazon also announced plans to create another 1,000 permanent jobs in Ireland over the next two years bringing Amazon’s total permanent workforce in the country to over 5,000 people by 2022.

The introduction of the first fulfilment centre and a second delivery station in Ireland builds on Amazon’s continued commitment to, and investment in, the country after opening the first Amazon office in Ireland in September 2004. In April 2006, Amazon opened a Customer Service Centre in Cork, and in November 2007, Amazon Web Services (AWS) launched its first infrastructure region outside of the US in Ireland. Since this time, AWS has continued to invest in Ireland and the impact of its investments today supports over 8,700 jobs directly and indirectly and generates growth in economic output of €1.45 billion a year.

Amazon provides competitive pay, excellent benefits and a modern, safe and engaging work environment for its employees. Amazon pays all its employees in Ireland, whether they are full-time, part-time, temporary, or seasonal, at least €12 per hour. Employees are offered a comprehensive benefits package including include private medical insurance, life assurance, income protection and an employee discount as well as a company pension plan.

Amazon’s fulfilment network supports millions of businesses of all sizes worldwide through its Fulfilment by Amazon offering, and many of those local businesses are based in Ireland. There are thousands of small and medium-sized businesses (SMEs), authors and developers in Ireland growing their companies and reaching new customers with Amazon products and services.

Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment Leo Varadkar TD, said: “I welcome today’s news that Amazon will open its first Irish fulfilment centre in Dublin next spring, creating 500 new jobs. This, alongside the announcement of a second Dublin delivery station creating a further 20 new roles, will mean faster delivery of goods for customers all across the country and strongly underscores Amazon’s continued commitment to Ireland.

Since Amazon’s arrival here in 2004, it has become a significant source of employment – today’s announcement will bring its total workforce to over 5,000. I wish the team the very best of luck with this exciting new chapter.”

Martin Shanahan, CEO, IDA Ireland, said: “Amazon has had a presence in Ireland for 17 years now, growing and expanding its range of activities which has contributed significantly to Ireland’s tech ecosystem and our reputation as a global tech hub. Already a substantial and valued employer, the 500 additional jobs being created in this new centre will bring its permanent workforce to over 5,000 next year in Ireland. It is great to see Ireland continuing to attract investment and playing such an important part in the future plans of this global company. Amazon’s ongoing commitment to Ireland is most welcome.”

Minister of State for Trade Promotion, Digital and Company Regulation Robert Troy TD, said: “I am delighted to see Amazon continuing to grow its presence in Ireland. The opening of this new fulfilment centre will speed up deliveries for Irish customers and create 500 new roles, bringing Amazon’s headcount here to over 5000. This announcement is a significant reaffirmation of Amazon’s commitment to Ireland, and I wish all involved every success.”

Stefano Perego, VP Amazon’s Fulfilment Centre Operations in Europe, said: “We are delighted to be opening our first fulfilment centre in Dublin enabling us to provide faster delivery times for customers across Ireland.  We are excited to be creating 500 new permanent roles which offer competitive wages, excellent benefits and a modern, safe and engaging work environment for our employees.

“The new state-of-the-art fulfilment centre and delivery station are a further sign of our commitment to the communities in which we operate. The new teams will play a crucial role in providing faster delivery to customers across Ireland including one-day delivery on hundreds of thousands of items.”

Husband and wife team Adrian and Maria Ghita, have worked for Amazon for four years and, for the last year, as sortation associates at the delivery station in Rathcoole.

Adrian said: “I really enjoy working at Amazon for many reasons, it provides me with good stability, great benefits and a pleasant work environment and I like how it provides me with good work life balance. You also get to meet a lot of different people which is very nice.”

Maria added: “Amazon provides a lot of flexibility and they have been very helpful with my shifts to suit my family. I feel I am working in a very safe working environment and it is a great company to work for.”

Amazon offers employees Career Choice, an innovative programme which pre-pays 95% of tuition for courses in high-demand fields, up to €12,000 over four years, regardless of whether the skills are relevant to a career at Amazon.

Amazon also provides opportunities to improve existing skills or learn new ones through internal career progression opportunities such as cross-training, transferring to a different department and promotion into a managerial role.

Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Amazon has invested more than $11.5bn globally and introduced more than 150 new safety measures to help keep its employees safe.

As part of Amazon’s commitment to be net-zero carbon across its business by 2040. The fulfilment centre will launch 100% electric, removing the use of fossil fuel combustibles (natural gas) and with energy efficiency as a top priority. Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) is controlled by a building management system (BMS) that ensures a comfortable working environment for associates at the same time as reducing unnecessary energy consumption. LED lighting adjusts according to natural light availability and building occupancy, and indoor air quality is constantly monitored.

The building will be fitted with solar panels in 2022 and associates will have access to electric vehicle charging and bicycle storage.

The delivery station is designed with energy efficiency as a top priority. Heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) is controlled by a digital building management system that ensures a comfortable working environment at the same time as reducing unnecessary energy consumption. Electric charging points will also be fitted at the delivery station.

Amazon is on a path to powering its operations with 100% renewable energy by 2025, reaching 65% in 2020, and is now the biggest corporate buyer of renewable energy in Europe and the world. For locations of our renewable energy projects globally, see here: sustainability.aboutamazon.com/about/around-the-globe

In 2019, Amazon co-founded The Climate Pledge – a commitment to be net-zero carbon across our business by 2040, 10 years ahead of the Paris Agreement. Find out more here: sustainability.aboutamazon.com/about/the-climate-pledge

Anyone can find out more about what it’s like to work at an Amazon fulfilment centre by signing up for a virtual tour at amazonfctours.com.

People interested in applying for jobs at Amazon in Ireland should visit Amazon Jobs

NOTES TO EDITORS

About Amazon
Amazon is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Amazon strives to be Earth’s Most Customer-Centric Company, Earth’s Best Employer, and Earth’s Safest Place to Work. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalised recommendations, Prime, Fulfilment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Career Choice, Fire tablets, Fire TV, Amazon Echo, Alexa, Just Walk Out technology, Amazon Studios, and The Climate Pledge are some of the things pioneered by Amazon.

About Amazon Web Services
For over 15 years, Amazon Web Services has been the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud offering. AWS has been continually expanding its services to support virtually any cloud workload, and it now has more than 200 fully featured services for compute, storage, databases, networking, analytics, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT), mobile, security, hybrid, virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR), media, and application development, deployment, and management from 81 Availability Zones within 25 geographic regions, with announced plans for 21 more Availability Zones and seven more AWS Regions in Australia, India, Indonesia, Israel, Spain, Switzerland, and the United Arab Emirates. Millions of customers—including the fastest-growing startups, largest enterprises, and leading government agencies—trust AWS to power their infrastructure, become more agile, and lower costs. To learn more about AWS, visit aws.amazon.com.