Major Amazon building – the size of seven football pitches – will create 2,000 jobs in Northampton from 2026

The building, located at the SEGRO Logistics Park just off Junction 15 of the M1, will be an Amazon Robotics fulfilment centre dealing with items the size of a Monopoly board or smaller.

It will be the most up-to-date fulfilment centre of its type in Amazon’s UK network when it begins to manage customer orders from next year, but the opening date is yet to be confirmed.

What is a fulfilment centre and how does it work?

The majority of products held by Amazon belong to other businesses and these are sent to receive centres – where they are checked before being sent via HGVs to the network of fulfilment centres across the UK.

When a product reaches a fulfilment centre and is stored away, that is when customers can hit ‘buy now’ and the order is processed. It is then transported to a sortation centre and finally a delivery station before customers receive the items to their doors.

Put simply, fulfilment centres are where the products you see on Amazon are held – and there are 31 across the UK, categorised based on the size of the products they deal with.

These buildings use state-of-the-art robotic technology. The products are housed in storage pods, which the robots travel underneath to lift the items up.

As opposed to workers walking to the shelves, the shelves are brought to them and it removes wasted time walking to collect the ordered products.

This ensures that orders are picked, packed and ready to leave fulfilment centres within two hours to meet demand, and the only way this can be achieved is through this high level tech and automation.

Here’s what Amazon UK’s regional director had to say…

Neil Travis spoke to the Chronicle & Echo and began by explaining why Northampton was chosen for this modern and state-of-the-art building – which brings the total invested in the East Midlands to more than £4 billion since 2010.

The regional director says it is important to Amazon to be as close to their customers as they can, to ensure they meet demand.

The new building will not only serve the south of the Midlands, including the entirety of Northamptonshire, but all the way down to North London too.

The business’ sophisticated algorithms reveal where the demand is and what people are purchasing, and introducing new buildings ensures they cover less miles and achieve quicker delivery. This is why Northampton was chosen.

“Most customers now want same or next day delivery,” said Neil. “The closer we are to our customers, the better we are able to serve them quickly with the products they want.”

This is Northamptonshire’s first fulfilment centre and the ground work has already been completed. The team is optimistically on track and expecting to open the building in 2026.

The centre is around 575,000 square feet, which Neil likened to seven football pitches. It will have four floors and 2.2 million square feet of operational space.

Neil stressed that being environmentally conscious is important to Amazon UK. They have used 100 percent renewable energy since 2023, which was seven years ahead of target, and will have solar panels installed on this building.

How many jobs is this Amazon fulfilment centre going to create?

The building will open with around 1,400 new jobs available, and Neil says this will grow to more than 2,000 once it is fully up and running.

The fulfilment centre will create a range of roles that normal warehouse environments do not, including 60 to 70 on-site engineers and people specifically engaging with the thousands of robots.

The jobs will be a mixture of apprenticeship, full-time and part-time positions, and there are 60 different roles available across the building. These include specialist robotic and mechatronic engineers, to software developers, IT professionals and HR roles.

Neil explained the minimum pay is £13.50 per hour and entry level positions start at a minimum of £28,000 per year – with benefits including medical cover, a subsidised canteen and Amazon discounts.

“We’re big on flexible offerings for people with different needs and working environments,” said Neil. “We believe we are the first large-scale organisation to offer term time only contracts.”

These are designed for parents and carers to help them balance a job and raising a family, and they will still receive the same benefits as other standard roles.

When it comes to the specialist roles on offer, Neil emphasised that the robotic technology used throughout Amazon’s buildings is proprietary to them – meaning there is the potential to learn many new skills and enhance knowledge.

The hope is that this £500 million investment in Northampton will also have a positive impact on the county’s economy.