100 million euro – this is how much constructing and equipping each of the two first logistic centres of American Amazon cost. Both facilities, located in Bielany Wrocławskie, were officially launched on Tuesday, October 28th.
“It is indeed a special day for Amazon” said Tim Collins, the Director of Operations responsible for Amazon’s logistic centres in Europe. “Both of our centres are fully prepared to operate in just seven months from laying the foundation stone and commencing construction works.
“Finishing such a significant investment in such a short time is indeed impressive, both from the perspective of the country’s economic growth, as well as the region’s” expressed Ilona Antoniszyn-Klik, the Under Secretary in the Ministry of Economy. “What is also relishing is also the fact that the declarations made by the investor about providing an unprecedented number of new jobs were fulfilled.
Amazon’s record investment
“The building cycle, in which both of Wrocław centres were erected is indeed admirable” commented Tomasz Smolarz, the Voivod of Lower Silesia. “Actually, many things are record, when it comes to this concern – the largest logistic centre, the largest factory floors, the greatest number of people employed in such a short time. This is something worth praising. Although comments arose regarding the compensation of employees, I believe that due to the saturation of the labour market this situation will be improving with every coming month. The number of people employed by Amazon is now visible in the unemployment rate in the area of Lower Silesia. It is ca. 0.2 percent. It is really a significant number of employees.
“Amazon’s facility is the largest investment of this sort in Poland, and due to the giant scale of the enterprise, also an outstanding challenge for the developer – starting with proper location, through the very construction of logistic centres, to finally ensuring vast road infrastructure” said Robert Dobrzycki, the managing partner in Panattoni Europe.
Huge warehouses, large sales
Both facilities in Bielany Wroclawskie are ca. 95,000 sq m. of space each, which is the equivalent of 13 soccer pitches. They will be integrated with Amazon’s European logistic network. The new centres will first provide services mainly for Amazon.de, and in time will service also the customers from other countries in the whole of Europe. One centre will sell up to 500-600,000 various items a day from its assortment. Each centre can accommodate up to 8 million items at a time on its shelves. They will be delivered by ca. 100 TIR trucks a day.
Sub-Wrocław logistic centres will provide a total of 6.500 jobs.
Source: 31-10-2014
