Amazon to invest $54 billion in Britain over next three years

By James Davey

LONDON (Reuters) -Amazon has deepened its commitment to Britain, with the e-commerce giant saying it plans to invest 40 billion pounds ($54 billion) over the next three years, a move the UK government hailed as a vote of confidence in its economic policies.

Elected in 2024, the Labour government has made boosting Britain's anaemic growth a priority and wants to see a step up in foreign investment.

Amazon said on Tuesday its expansion in Britain, its third biggest market after the United States and Germany, would create thousands of jobs. It currently employs 75,000 in the UK, making it a top ten private sector employer.

Its plan includes building two new state-of-the-art fulfilment centres in the East Midlands, central England, expected to open in 2027, as well as previously announced new centres in Hull, northern England, and Northampton, central England, that will open this year and next year respectively.

The Hull and Northampton sites will each create 2,000 jobs.

Amazon also plans new delivery stations across the UK, upgrades and expansions to its existing network of over 100 operations buildings, investment to enhance its transport infrastructure, two new buildings at its corporate headquarters in London and the redevelopment of the Bray Film Studios in Berkshire, southern England.

The 40 billion pounds figure includes part of the 8 billion pounds announced by Amazon's cloud computing arm in September 2024 for building, operating, and maintaining data centres in the UK from 2024 to 2028. It also includes salaries for Amazon employees.

Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose government on Monday detailed its industrial strategy, said Amazon's plans represented "a massive vote of confidence in the UK as the best place to do business."

On Friday, Britain's grocery regulator launched an investigation into Amazon, probing whether it breached rules on timely supplier payments.

($1 = 0.7423 pounds)

(Reporting by James Davey, Editing by Nick Zieminski)