Amazon will open its thirteenth fulfilment centre in the UK next year.

The new centre in Tilbury, Essex will create more than 1,500 new permanent jobs and help the online retail giant meet increasing customer demand and expand its product selection, which currently exceeds 150 million items.

Vice president of Amazon’s UK operations John Tagawa said the new centre would also  support more third-party sellers including small businesses.  

New positions created at the centre take in a variety of roles including operations managers, engineers, HR, IT and order handlers.

The Tilbury centre will be equipped with Amazon’s robotics technology, which has helped speed up order processing time and improve stock storage volume by 50 per cent.

“The introduction of Amazon Robotics is the newest example of our commitment to invention in logistics on behalf of our employees and our customers,” commented Mr Tagawa.

The news comes just days after the online retail giant announced that it would be opening its third fulfilment centre in Doncaster in the summer of 2017.