Amazon to create 1,000 jobs at new Nottinghamshire hub

AMAZON is to generate more than 1,000 jobs at a new warehouse in Nottinghamshire after consumers stampeded to embrace internet shopping during lockdown.

The firm is building a 1.75m-sq-ft distribution centre – the size of 22 football pitches – at a site near Sutton-in-ashfield, which has been empty for nearly 10 years.

The hiring spree comes after a blizzard of job losses on the high street, with more than 25,000 cuts announced by stalwarts such as John Lewis and Boots as customers move online.

Initially it had been hoped that the warehouse could employ up to 1,800 when plans were first revealed in 2019.

Jason Zadrozny, leader of Ashfield district council, said at the time that Amazon’s decision was “the biggest single private sector investment in the district for quite some time, maybe ever”. Amazon is hiring engineers and other employees for the site. Construction started last year.

The company has benefited from shoppers deserting the high street. This trend was turbocharged by lockdown, with a 73pc surge in internet sales according to the Office for National Statistics. Amazon has reportedly been in talks with large stores in the US to turn them into warehouses.