Amazon to create up to 2,500 jobs with vast new packaging centre

INTERNET giant Amazon is to create almost 1,000 permanent jobs in Scotland dealing with online orders from across the globe in a highly ambitious investment package worth more than £60 million.

First Minister Alex Salmond announced the "historic" scheme, which will see most of the jobs created at a huge new distribution centre in Dunfermline, packing books, DVDs, video games and other products ordered online by customers.

A further 1,500 temporary jobs could also be created at the site during peak periods such as the run-up to Christmas, when the internet sales outfit is inundated with online orders for products.

Mr Salmond and Amazon executives said that the firm would transfer its operation from Glenrothes to Dunfermline and that the 80 employees at the existing site would all be offered jobs at the new centre.

The American company is also on the brink of a deal to move its Scottish headquarters into Edinburgh's Waverley Gate, the former GPO, which is already the Scottish HQ for Microsoft. Up to 110 jobs could be created by the move.

The First Minister said that 763 jobs would be created at Dunfermline site - an increase in job opportunities with the online sales firm, which Mr Salmond described as "tenfold".

A further 200 posts packing internet orders will also be created at the company's other Scottish site in Gourock, which already employees 200 people.

Employees will be taken on by the end of the year at the new centre in Dunfermline, which will have a space of one million square feet - the size of one side of the US military HQ the Pentagon or 14 football pitches.

More than 6m of Scottish Government cash is being invested in the scheme, with the rest of the funds for the new centre coming from Amazon - which the First Minister said was "dramatically good news for Scotland". Mr Salmond, speaking at the launch of the initiative at Edinburgh Castle yesterday, said: "This is a historic scheme and it represents a massive scale of investment.

"The largest office building in the world is the Pentagon. The new centre will be equivalent to one side of the Pentagon".

Allan Lyall, vice-president of European operations at Amazon, talked about how the firm had started out selling music and books online in 1995, before going onto become one of the world's biggest internet sales sites.

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He said: "Amazon is delighted that its biggest UK fulfilment centre is to be built in Dunfermline.

"It is a great location and it has been Amazon's priority to secure a new site as close to the current Glenrothes fulfilment centre as possible, in order to preserve and transfer the entire skilled workforce with all its experience and Amazon knowledge."

The First Minister said the Scottish Government and quangos Scottish Development International and Scottish Enterprise had been involved in talks with Amazon to secure the 60m investment in the new centre.

He said: "These new jobs are a welcome boost to the economy and a demonstration of Amazon's commitment to doing business in Scotland."Scottish Enterprise chief executive Lena Wilson welcomed the investment, saying: "We'll also be continuing to work closely with the company to look at how we can continue to support them and ensure these sites remain integral to Amazon's UK and European operations."

Building work is to start immediately on the 39-acre site at Calais Muir South in Dunfermline, previously owned by Scottish Enterprise and Fife Council.