Amazon has officially opened a £107m major distribution centre in Peterborough, introducing a new logistics model designed to accelerate the movement of high-demand products through its UK fulfilment network.
The 690,000sq ft facility, on Flaxley Road, is the company’s first One Distribution Centre in the UK and the largest of its kind in Europe. It is expected to create around 1,400 jobs and has capacity to store up to 16 million items during peak periods, with the ability to ship as many as five million items a week.
The 1,400 new roles will include powered industrial truck drivers, inventory control staff, team leaders and area managers.
Unlike a conventional fulfilment centre, the site will not dispatch orders directly to customers. Instead, it will hold frequently purchased products, including household essentials such as pet food and toilet paper, and replenish stocks at around 20 fulfilment centres nationwide, where they can be combined with the rest of customers’ orders before final delivery.
The model is intended to reduce processing steps, ease pressure on fulfilment centres and improve product availability for same-day and next-day delivery. Additional storage capacity should also help Amazon manage demand surges during major shopping events, including Prime Day and Black Friday.
Tomislav Batinic, Amazon site leader at the Peterborough facility, said: “This site is a complete re-invention of how we run part of our logistics operation, and a historic moment for Amazon. It is the first of its kind in the UK and the largest in Europe.”
He added: “This type of site will be the template for how we run our operations in the years ahead, so it is a privilege to be the ones introducing it.
“We have called our team ‘Team Founders’ to mark how historic this moment is – and we are not just launching a building, we are laying the groundwork for something that will grow and endure long after Day One.”
The centre introduces pallet computer vision technology designed to check products as they arrive from suppliers, removing the need for a separate check-in stage and helping goods move more quickly through the building.
Products can travel from supplier arrivals to outbound dispatch for fulfilment centres under one roof, without the traditional unpacking and sorting stages. The operation will also feature the largest fleet of powered industrial trucks (PITs) at any Amazon site in the UK, supporting the movement of stock through the facility.
The combination of increased storage, automated checking technology and a revised flow of goods represents a different approach to positioning inventory across Amazon’s network. By holding popular products closer to the fulfilment stage, the company aims to make its wider operation more responsive to demand while reducing unnecessary handling.
Batinic said the new facility would provide a template for future operations. “This type of site will be the template for how we run our operations in the years ahead, so it is a privilege to be the one introducing it,” he said.
The opening forms part of Amazon’s £40bn UK investment plan for 2025-27 and marks its first new building in Peterborough for 15 years.
The company already operates a fulfilment centre in the city, opened in 2010, which employs more than 1,000 people. The new distribution centre building had previously provided additional capacity during peak season before being fitted out as a permanent facility.
