Amazon to build fulfillment center in Alcoa with 800 jobs

The world’s biggest online retailer announced Wednesday it will add its eighth distribution facility in Tennessee by building a 634,812-square-foot fulfillment center in Alcoa, Tennessee, that will add 800 full-time jobs when it launches in 2022.

Similar to other fulfillment centers Amazon has built in Chattanooga and other Tennessee cities over the past decade, workers at the Aloca center will pick, pack and ship smaller customer items, such as books, electronics and consumer goods.

The Alcoa facility will be Amazon’s third fulfillment center in Tennessee to use innovative robotics technology and the company’s eighth fulfillment center in the Volunteer State. Last year, Amazon announced it would establish similar fulfillment center operations in Memphis and Mt. Juliet.

“We are excited to continue creating a positive economic impact in the region with job opportunities and industry-leading benefits that start on the first day of the job,” said Holly Sullivan, Amazon’s head of worldwide economic development. “Tennessee is a great state for business and we are excited to have the opportunity to partner, grow and better serve our customers throughout this region.”

Amazon, which built its first fulfillment centers in Tennessee nine years ago in Chattanooga and Charleston, has since added other distribution warehouses and sortation centers in Murfreesboro, Lebanon, Nashville and Memphis. The company is in the midst of building Amazon Nashville, a new downtown office that will bring more than 5,000 tech and corporate jobs to Nashville.

Amazon last year saw unparalleled growth, adding more than 400,000 employees around the globe, including 3,000 in Tennessee, to bring its global workforce to more than 1.1 million.

“Amazon is a global brand that has invested $1.5 billion and created more than 25,000 jobs across all three grand divisions of our state, and we appreciate their team for choosing to grow in East Tennessee,” said Bob Rolfe, commissioner for Tennessee’s Department of Economic and Community Development who recruited the Amazon facility to Blount County, Tennessee.