POLAND/CZECH REPUBLIC To be world’s most focused retailer when it comes to consumers’ expectations, providing everyone with whatever they would like to buy on the internet – this is the mission of the US e-commerce market giant Amazon, whose sales revenue last year exceeded USD 60 bln. The company, which originates from Seattle, is making greater space for itself on the Old Continent by extending its network of distribution centres in Poland and the Czech Republic.
6,000 plus 9,000
September was not the best month for Amazon’s German executives. The workforce of its distribution centres in the country went on strike in pursuit of higher salaries. In the same period the news broke about the new halls in our part of Europe. In the wake of this there was some confusion in the media, which was hardly cleared up by a few rather laconic statements about the plans from both representatives of the US firm and the developers responsible for the facilities it plans to open in Central and Eastern Europe. On October 7th the Ministry of Economy, the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ) and a representative of Amazon officially confirmed that the US e-commerce giant will open three huge logistics centres in Poland.
One complex is to be built near Poznań (in Sady in the Tarnowo Podgórne administrative district), while the other one will be located near Wrocław (in Bielany Wrocławskie in the Kobierzyce administrative district). The openings are planned for next August. A third centre will be built in the same location near Wrocław, but will not be opened earlier than mid-2015. “Each will have an area of app. 95,000 sqm – as much as 13 football pitches,” disclosed Timothy Collins, Amazon’s operations director for Europe. The project in Bielany Wrocławskie will be leased from Goodman, with which Amazon has previously cooperated in Germany (near Berlin and in Leipzig, Koblenz, Graben and Rheinberg) and on the French market (in Lauwin-Planque, Orléans and Montélimar). The Poznań centre is to be developed by Panattoni Europe, which will also be responsible for the construction of the third complex – near Wrocław. The head of Amazon in Europe has estimated the investment expenditure at hundreds of millions of euro. “The access to high quality human resources weighed in favour of locating the facilities in Poland. The Polish centres will support our pan-European development, which means that we are interested in all 28 countries of the European Union as well as the nearly 50 countries across the Europe continent,” explained Timothy Collins, who went on to add that he could only confirm the information about the new set-up in our region, but he assured us that there were no plans to close down any other European distribution centres.
Three instead of two?
Meanwhile the company’s expansion in the Czech Republic will involve the construction of a centre for items returned from Germany in Dobrovíz near Prague Airport. Amazon will be leasing the space from Panattoni. Another facility is to be built near Brno and leased from CTP. As with the Polish distribution centres, they will have each have areas of 95,000 sqm. And similar to Poland, there has also been a flurry of information about Amazon’s plans for the Czech Republic from a variety of sources, some of which is contradictory. Some of the media reported that Goodman was also going to build a 95,000 sqm centre for Amazon in Jeneč near Prague Airport on a 42 ha site owned by Skanska Property, while elsewhere it was claimed that Bratislava would be the location for a third complex. Whatever Amazon’s plans actually turn out to be should eventually become clear, but what is for certain is that for whatever reason the online retailer has chosen to locate its distribution hubs here, the decision represents both a significant and long term investment in the CEE region.
