Amazon is preparing for what could be its busiest Christmas ever by hiring creating 1,000 new jobs throughout its UK operations.

This latest recruitment drive is expected to push the online retailer’s total UK workforce past 15,500 and follows the creation of 2,500 permanent full time positions in January.

These new jobs have been created at the company’s delivery and fulfillment centres, as well as the UK head office, customer service, research and development, web services, and photography departments.

The announcement comes one year after the company launched its Prime Now service, which promises delivery of certain products to around a third of the UK population within one hour.

The fastest Prime Now delivery saw a customer receive their order within 15 minutes of payment.

Doug Gurr, UK country manager for Amazon, said: “We’ve delivered on our promise to rollout quickly with the service available to millions of people from Newcastle to Portsmouth, and we’re continuing to invest to bring ultra-fast delivery to more and more of the UK.

“We are creating thousands of new jobs to continue to deliver the experience our customers know and love during the festive season and beyond.”