Amazon announced plans to open a corporate office in Manchester in the city’s iconic Hanover Building. The company will be across six-storey and 90,000 sq. ft. at the site, giving Amazon capacity to create space for over 600 new roles in the city.
Secretary of State for International Trade, The Rt Hon Liam Fox MP, said: “Ensuring that the world’s best and brightest companies continue to invest and innovate in the UK is at the heart of our Global Britain agenda. Amazon’s decision to create hundreds of highly-skilled jobs in Manchester, Edinburgh and Cambridge is an enormous vote of confidence in the UK and a signal to the world that the UK is very much open for business.”
The new site will be Amazon’s first UK corporate office outside of London and will be home to a wide variety of Amazon teams. Highly skilled teams will work on projects that benefit Amazon’s customers around the world, including software development, machine learning and research and development (R&D). The site shows how Amazon is investing in the UK and new employees at the Manchester office will complement teams working on global innovation in London, Cambridge and Edinburgh.
“Manchester was at the heart of the industrial revolution and has a fantastic history of innovation”, said Doug Gurr, UK Country Manager, Amazon. “With the UK taking a leading role in the global tech, we are delighted to announce plans to open a new corporate office in the city. Our new office will be home to over 600 staff, many of whom will be focused on developing exciting new products and services used by Amazon customers around the world. The city offers an incredibly talented workforce and a budding tech scene with some of the most exciting, fast-growing tech companies in the UK situated here.”
Andy Burnham, Mayor of Greater Manchester, said: “Amazon opening their new office in Manchester is another vote of confidence in our city-region as a global digital leader.
“We are the UK’s top digital city-region and we are open for business. Greater Manchester is building a global reputation as a leading hub, both for multinational companies and start-ups. This news, following a number of similar announcements in recent months, shows that our city-region is swiftly becoming a go-to destination for the world’s most exciting digital companies.”
Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Jeremy Wright, said: “It is great global tech giant Amazon has chosen Manchester, a vital part of the Northern Powerhouse, to open their new office and are creating hundreds of high-skilled jobs up and down the country.
“Our booming digital sector is one of the fastest-growing industries in the UK and this is a vote of confidence in our world-leading skills in tech innovation.”
