Amazon has announced plans to open a fulfillment centre in Calgary’s Nose Creek Business Park.
The company says this will create over 750 full-time jobs, adding to its current workforce of over 2,000 full-time fulfillment associates across Canada. Altogether, Amazon says it employs more than 4,400 Canadians across its corporate offices, development centres and other facilities.
Amazon says fulfillment centre associates are responsible for picking, packing and shipping all sorts of items, ranging from aviator sunglasses to zebra costumes.
Calgary’s upcoming 600,000 square foot facility will be Amazon’s first fulfilment centre in Alberta and seventh overall in Canada. The other six centres are located in Ontario (Brampton, Mississauga, and Milton) and British Columbia (Delta and New Westminster).
“We are excited to continue our growth in Canada and especially in the greater Calgary community where we’ve already received great community support,” said Glenn Sommerville, director of Amazon operations in Canada, in a press statement. “Our ability to create more than 750 good-paying jobs with great benefits is the result of our dedicated workforce across the country who continue to raise the bar on operational excellence and customer obsession. Customers have seen the great work they do and we couldn’t be prouder of our ability to grow in Canada.”
In the meantime, Amazon has been looking for a city to house its second North American headquarters, the first being in Seattle, Washington.
Calgary has been one of the Canadian cities vying for the new HQ and has even made an offer to fight a bear as part of its bid. Ontario’s Mississauga, Toronto and Brampton have also rallied for the new location, as have Vancouver and Halifax.
Some Canadian business executives, however, have argued that Canada shouldn’t be pursuing Amazon’s second headquarters.
To date, Amazon says it has received 238 proposals from “cities and regions in 54 states, provinces, districts and territories across North America.”
Source: Canada Newswire
