According to a spokesperson for Amazon, the facility will henceforth handle small to medium-sized items, such as USB drives and irons, instead of exclusively medium-sized goods like diaper packages and game consoles that it has stocked until now.
Following the reconstruction, the facility is said to accommodate up to 20 million items. As part of the operation, hundreds of transport robots are being introduced to move mobile shelving systems directly to personnel to reduce their walking distances.
To Double the Number of Employees
Today, just over 1,000 people work at the facility in Pforzheim. That figure is expected to increase to just over 2,000 employees over the next three years. The company states that all current jobs will be retained during the construction period.
Dirk Krueger, Senior HR Manager at Amazon, emphasizes in a post that the increased use of technology does not mean any jobs will be lost. He highlights that the reconstruction will lead to new roles, new skills and new career paths for existing staff, describing it as a joint investment in both people and technology.
We want to be a good neighbor in the region – with attractive workplaces, prospects for employees and a commitment to local economic development, says Amazon's spokesperson.
Pforzheim's mayor Peter Boch describes the investment as a clear signal for the city as a business location.
In no other municipality in Baden-Württemberg have there been such high foreign direct investments in recent years that have actually been translated into physical expansion in the locality, says Peter Boch.
According to its own information, Amazon currently operates ten facilities in the state of Baden-Württemberg with a total of 3,000 employees.