Amazon is betting on Asturias as its major centre of operations for northwest Spain and part of Portugal. The US logistics and e-commerce global player is making good progress in the construction of its new sortable fulfillment center in Siero and plans to build a delivery station in Gijón and improve the receive center it has in Meres (Siero).
In January 2021, Amazon chose Asturias for its new logistics centre, which is already under construction in the Bobes (Siero) industrial estate. With an expected investment of around 100 million euros, the facilities will occupy up to 200,000 square metres (25 metres high) dedicated to the storage and management of all types of products and will directly employ around 2,000 people.
It will become one of the largest in southern Europe, being the only logistics centre in northwest Spain. In this large, robotised warehouse, Amazon will manage all the reception and dispatch of parcels.
The company Dragados, part of the ACS Group, oversees building the large new logistics centre, which is expected to be ready in the summer of 2022.
Asturias’ road and sea connections, key to the choice
Road connections from Asturias have been a key aspect in Amazon’s choice of our region. In addition, through the ports of Gijón and Avilés (with an excellent geographical location in the centre of the European front) Asturias also has good maritime transport, a truly relevant aspect for a logistics centre that will distribute millions of packages a year.
Amazon’s multi-million investments in Asturias are also expected to have a knock-on effect and facilitate the installation in its area of influence of other companies in the logistics and transport sector.
Other Amazon centres in Gijón and Meres
To support the huge Bobes warehouse, Amazon is also planning to build a delivery station in Gijón that will create a large number of jobs.
This distribution centre -or cross-docking- will be built on an area of 52,000 square metres and include a fleet of 600 electric vans for “last mile” deliveries.
In addition, the company will invest one million euros in the refurbishment and expansion of the receive center it has had in operation since 2019 in Meres, Siero, which at the end of 2020 employed more than fifty people directly.
These important investments consolidate Amazon’s strategy of turning Asturias into an important centre of operations in northwest Spain and will also contribute to boosting strategic industrial areas for our region.
Amazon, ten years in Spain
Amazon is a powerful engine of growth for the Spanish economy. Since 2011, the company has made investments in Spain worth more than €6.8 billion. This includes both capital investments (in logistics centres, corporate offices, and cloud infrastructure) and operating expenses (including the salaries paid to its employees).
The company has become an important driver of job creation in Spain. Its workforce in the country has grown rapidly to more than 12,000 people by the end of 2020, a year in which Amazon paid an average of €27.4 million per month in wages and salaries to its employees in Spain.