Spring 2007

Amazon.co.uk is to open a fourth UK distribution centre in South Wales, expanding on its three existing facilities at Marston Gate near Milton Keynes and Gourock and Glenrothes in Scotland.

Amazon has also revealed plans to add a second French distribution centre at Saran, near Orlans.

The 800,000 sq ft Welsh facility, described as being the size of ten football pitches, will be built on a 33-acre site formerly owned by the Welsh Assembly Government at Jersey Marine. It lies in the Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council area, not far from Swansea, and is famous for an octagonal Victorian tower.

The developer will be Macquarie Goodman, an Australian property group that has been steadily building up a presence in Europe. It acquired Arlington Securities in 2005, and then last year added Eurinpro International, a large group in its own right, which worked on a warehouse project for Amazon in Leipzig, Germany last summer.

Macquarie Goodman will also be developing the new French site, which will occupy 450,000 sq ft near an existing facility at Boigny-sur-Bionne in the Val de Loire region. It will handle books, DVD, video games, software and music for Amazon.fr, and is due to open later this year. As with some of its previous property developments, Amazon will be able to take advantage of regional support to help fund the Welsh project. In this case the money will be provided by the Welsh Assembly through regional selective assistance grant aid. According to Andrew Davies, Welsh Assembly government minister for enterprise, innovation and network, this support, reinforced by help from his department's International Business Wales team, 'was pivotal in winning this major project.'

Work is due to start on the site during April, and the first phase of 400,000 sq ft should be completed by this October. When the entire site is operational in five years' time it should have created up to 1,200 jobs.

Amazon says the centre will distribute a wide range of items available from www.amazon.co.uk, and will also provide extra capacity for 'an ever-increasing selection of products'. There is no suggestion that the company will downscale any of its existing premises.