Internet giant Amazon is opening corporate HQ in Manchester

Hanover House

Internet giant Amazon has announced it is opening a corporate office in Manchester and is bringing 600 jobs to the city.

Rumours have been swirling around the city for months that the firm has been planning to come to the North West.

And last night the US firm confirmed it is opening its office in the city’s iconic Hanover Building.

The Hanover Building is located in the NOMA area of the city and the move is being touted as a major coup for the region.

The announcement comes just months after the government agency GCHQ revealed it is opening an office in the city.

The agency will use cutting-edge technology and technical ingenuity to identify and disrupt threats to the UK.

The aim is for the planned site, based in Manchester, to open in 2019 – bringing hundreds of new jobs to the city.

Haover Building will be Amazon’s first UK corporate office outside of London and will be home to a wide variety of teams.

The teams will work on projects that benefit Amazon’s customers around the world, including software development, machine learning and research and development.

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, the head of Amazon in the UK.

“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.”

Greater Manchester mayor Andy Burnham 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.

2This 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.”

In recent years Amazon has opened two new fulfilment centres in Manchester and last year welcomed hundreds of small businesses to its first Amazon Academy in the city.

The firm has also announced plans today to expand its Scottish Development Centre in the heart of Edinburgh.

Along with the new roles in Edinburgh Amazon is also announcing plans to expand its Cambridge Development Centre, creating 180 new roles.

The development entre houses R&D teams that bring new innovation to millions of Amazon customers around the globe, including: Amazon Devices, Amazon Alexa (the brain that powers devices such as Amazon Echo, Echo Dot and Echo Show); AWS; Prime Air (a future delivery system to safely get packages to customers in 30 minutes or less using drones) and core machine learning and retail systems, improving the shopping experience for Amazon customers.

The company has committed to creating 2,500 jobs in the UK in 2018, taking its total UK workforce to over 27,500.

Secretary of State for International Trade Liam Fox 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.”

“With the UK taking a leading role in our global innovation, we are delighted to announce plans to create capacity for over 1,000 new highly-skilled roles across the country,” said Doug Gurr, UK Country Manager, Amazon. “These are Silicon Valley jobs in Britain, and further cement our long-term commitment to the UK.”

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