Amazon Celebrates Two Years In Dartford
The Amazon fulfilment centre in Dartford recently celebrated its second anniversary by reflecting on the team’s achievements since the site opened in 2021.
The Amazon Dartford fulfilment centre opened on 30th August 2021 and employs more than 2,500 permanent employees. The building, which measures more than 2m square feet, has 8,000 solar panels on its roof, covering a total of 32,000 square meters. It has 13km of conveyor belts, which is the equivalent of two laps of Silverstone racetrack, and thousands of robots across three robotic floors.
Since its launch, the Dartford fulfilment centre has supported many organisations in the community through donations and volunteering activities. Over the past two years, the Amazon Dartford team has taken part in 350 hours of volunteering with local charities, including Age UK, North West Kent and Second Chance Animal Rescue.
The fulfilment centre has also donated £37,000 to community organisations in the local area such as Mary’s Child, YMCA Thames Gateway and Swanley & District Foodbank who received £3,000. In 2023 so far, the Amazon team in Dartford has made donations totalling more than £5,000 to charities including Home-Start and North Kent Mind.
Speaking on the anniversary, John McEwen, Site Leader at Amazon in Dartford, said:
“We have had some great successes over the last two years in Dartford, but what’s been most important to us has been engaging with the community around the fulfilment centre. I’m glad we could bring the team together on the site’s second anniversary to reflect and celebrate, and we look forward to building on the relationships we’ve established around town in the years ahead.”
Alongside the second birthday celebrations, the team from the fulfilment centre in Dartford hosted a summer carnival for family and friends at Dartford Valley Community Rugby Club to celebrate the of the summer season.
The celebration, organised as a thank you to the Dartford team for the work they do delivering for customers around the UK, involved live music, a raffle and inflatables.
Since 2010, Amazon has invested over £490 million in Kent, which has led to the to the production of goods and services that contributed over an estimated £500 million to the region’s GDP.
Alongside the fulfilment centre and delivery station in Dartford, Amazon has three other buildings in Kent: a sortation centre in Rochester, a delivery station in Maidstone, and an Amazon Fresh Store in Sevenoaks.
At Amazon in Dartford, pay starts at £12 per hour for all for all full-time, part-time and seasonal workers to help pick, pack and ship customers’ orders. Employees are offered a comprehensive benefits package, including private medical insurance, life assurance, income protection, subsidised meals and an employee discount, which combined are worth more than £700 annually, as well as a company pension plan. In addition to this, we also have a Career Skills programme, which trains associates in critical job skills like resume writing, how to communicate effectively, and computer basics.
