Amazon will open a new fulfilment centre in Doncaster next summer, creating 500 new permanent full-time positions in the region.

The new one million sq ft centre to be built in iPort - a £500 million 337-acre greenfield development site - will be the online retail giant’s third fulfillment centre in Doncaster, following 2010’s Balby Carr Bank and Water Vole Way, which opened in autumn 2015.

As a result, the number of Doncaster residents employed by Amazon is expected to exceed 1,000 by the end of 2017, with Amazon’s UK workforce also pushing past 15,500 by then.  

The 500 new jobs follow the announcement of a huge recruitment drive ahead of what is expected to be Amazon’s biggest Christmas yet, with 3,500 full-time positions created at Amazon’s UK head office, R&D centres, and customer service and fulfillment centres.

John Tagawa, Amazon’s vice president of UK operations, said the company’s two existing fulfilment centres in Doncaster had highlighted the region’s “strong talent who would be well suited to working for Amazon”.

Amazon is also set to open another two fulfilment centres in Manchester and Leicestershire’s Coalville this autumn, a move expected to create 1,500 new jobs over three years.