First look around Amazon's new £107 million distribution centre in Peterborough
Work is moving a pace to bring Amazon’s state of the art distribution centre in Peterborough up to full capacity.
A visitor to the new One Distribution Centre, called EUK1, in Flaxley Road, Kingston Park, is struck by the huge amount of floor space – 690,000 square feet - the towering racks that will hold 16 million products and the high tech that is transforming its operations.
Yet,.in these early days the centre, which has just been opened, seems quite empty despite an army of people bringing in the various household products that will be in big demand among customers across the UK.
Some staff use the latest ‘fork lifts’ to unload lorries while others shrink wrap the pallets of of boxes for safety and then others using the latest powered industrial trucks to lift the loaded pallets into the racking.
A large track called ‘the motorway’ runs through the centre where the trucks run up down between the racks. Each truck is fitted with a special sensor that immediately brings it to a halt if there is a risk of collision.
Tomislav Batinic, site leader, said: "We only handle the products that are in demand.
"Products arrive from suppliers at one end – during the night – and head out to fulfilment centres across the country at the other during the day.
"It means our centres can quickly meet customers orders – in many cases overnight.”
The centre currently has 400 staff with that figures expected top reach 1,400 people next year.