Tomorrows Warehouse: Amazon ramping up warehouse space requirements
Delegates listening in to the Tomorrows Warehouse Property Theatre earlier this week were told that Amazon was firmly back in the market for warehouse space as ecommerce spend continues to increase.
By Liza Helps, Property Editor, Logistics Matters
SAVILL’S LOGISTICS research associate Lewis Rapley, noted that the internet giant and 3PL had already taken or was currently either under offer or negotiating on some 10 million ft2 of warehouse space in the UK so far this year.
The deals done included via 3PL contracts with GXO in Bristol and ID Logistics in Yorkshire, which alone accounted for some 1.3 million ft2. The company has also brought back properties which it had mothballed in 2023. It has already brought back its delivery station in Gloucester and this week announced the opening of its 82,882 ft2 delivery station Bracknell on SEGRO Park Bracknell which it originally acquired in 2021.
Earlier this year Amazon announced a £40 billion investment in the UK saying that it would open four new giant state-of-the-art distribution centres each providing 2,000 jobs as well as a series of new delivery stations nationwide.
Two of the new DCs in Melton, Hull and SEGRO Logistics Park Northampton have already been announced and will open in 2026 and 2027 respectively. Another state of the art warehouse is proposed in the East Midlands, with one more in a location yet to be revealed.
As well as the delivery stations in Gloucester and Bracknell, Logistics Matters has reported on and is aware of several other delivery station sites across the UK including: Cardiff Bay, Stoke on Trent, Barwick, and Ely in Cambridgeshire to name but a few.
Amazon Logistics says the Bracknell station will create around 50 permanent jobs as well as hundreds of ‘self-employed’ or third-party driver jobs with delivery service providers and Amazon Flex delivery partners.
The company states: “Delivery stations power the last mile of Amazon’s order process and help speed up deliveries for customers.
“Packages are shipped to a delivery station from neighbouring Amazon fulfilment and sortation centres, loaded into delivery vehicles and delivered to customers.”
