Amazon has opened its Irish fulfilment centre at Baldonnell Business Park on the outskirts of Dublin, enabling the online shopping giant to offer delivery seven days a week and one-day delivery to Irish customers.
The company said it will employ 500 people at the 630,000 sq ft warehouse, which will hold millions of items to be packed and shipped to customers in Ireland and across Europe.
Amazon already had two delivery stations in Rathcoole and Ballycoolin.
Darragh Kelly, general manager at the fulfilment centre in Dublin, said: “As a proud Irishman it’s an honour to lead the opening of our first ever fulfilment centre on the island of Ireland.
"Our new fulfilment centre will provide customers across Ireland with faster delivery times while creating hundreds of roles across a wide range of disciplines including engineering, HR, IT, health & safety, finance and operations management."
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The first order fulfilled at the centre was a laptop stand and a connector for a computer monitor.
The items were picked and packed at the site before being sent to Rathcoole for delivery by a contractor from Jetline Logistics to the home of Alex Dobinson in south Dublin.
"It was great to receive the first package from the new Amazon fulfilment centre in Dublin and meet some of the team. We will definitely be ordering again in the future," Dobinson said.
Amazon opened its first office in Ireland in September 2004 before opening a customer service centre in Cork two years later and an Amazon Web Services site in November 2007.
The company estimates that AWS now supports 8,700 jobs directly and indirectly and generates economic output of €1.45bn per year in Ireland.
Amazon reported sales of $121bn while recording a net loss of $2bn in the second quarter on the back of its failed investment in electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive.
The company reported last month that it would raises prices for its Prime fast-track delivery and streaming service by 43% in Europe this year to counter higher costs.
Photo (l-r): Amazon customer Alex Dobinson and Jetline Logstics delivery contractor Hilary Redmond. (Pic: Karl Hussey/ UNP)
