For over 20 years Amazon has been serving customers in the UK, but our commitment here goes well beyond just selling innovative products and services. We are a major employer and investor too, and we provide a market place that enables businesses in the UK to grow and take advantage of global consumers.
The talent in this country is something we are excited to harness to make the UK a major hub for our business. Over the past 10 years we have invested £18 billion in the UK, including new research and development facilities and our operations network. We have become a major UK employer. We have over 29,500 full time employees across England, Scotland and Wales and over the next two years, we’re hiring over 1,000 apprentices across the UK, including over 90 degree apprentices. Beyond this, the Amazon’ Future Engineer programme seeks to engage a million young people in the UK in computer science and robotics, helping the next generation prepare for the future economy.
We are proud of our record in creating a great place to work. We are first place in LinkedIn’s top companies list in the UK, and ranked first place in Glassdoor’s most In-Demand Companies. Our people are paid industry leading salaries starting at £10.50 in the London area and £9.50 in the rest of the UK, with comprehensive benefits including private medical cover, income protection insurance and life assurance from day one. We provide a positive and safe work environment and benchmark against UK national data that shows we have over 40% fewer injuries on average than other transportation and warehousing businesses. You don’t have to take our word for it. You can go online here to arrange a visit to see for yourself how we work.
Amazon in the UK enables business to thrive and grow. Around 122,000 jobs are supported through our supply chain, and 90,000 jobs supported by businesses that sell on Amazon. If you combine these indirect with our own direct employment, that means over 240,000 have their jobs supported by Amazon UK.
As we continue to invest and grow in this country, so does our wider contribution to the UK economy and the public purse. Amazon’s tax contribution help’s fund public services and infrastructure. We do this through the taxes that are directly generated by our business. Last year, Amazon contributed £793 million to the UK Treasury in direct and indirect taxes. You can read more about this on our website. This doesn’t include the extra taxes that are generated from the business we help to grow or third parties. You can read more here.
For the wider economy we provide a marketplace that helps UK businesses find new customers and prosper. Trade has been a topic of great interest in public discussion in recent years, and here Amazon has a part to play. We enabled over £2 billion in exports last year alone. Whether it’s a Glasgow candle maker selling in Germany or a micro business selling cosmetics from Dorset, companies selling on Amazon are able to reach customers previously out of reach. Britain’s historic entrepreneurial spirit has a new outlet with Amazon. In 2018, 55% of sales on Amazon.co.uk websites came from independent small and medium businesses from UK.
The UK is a hotbed of talent and opportunity, and we want to play our part in making its future a success. We’re investing and growing here, we’re building a business that innovates and invents right here in this country, and we have a long-term commitment to the UK. To do this we need to work in partnership with the businesses that use our services, the innovators that create the next great ideas, and the policy makers that enable all of this to happen.
Amazon empowers small businesses
Tens of thousands of UK businesses, mainly small and medium-sized, sell on Amazon to reach customers around the world. Last year UK businesses selling on Amazon exported goods worth around £2.5 billion.
Glasgow candlemaker goes global
Shearer Candles is a family run company that manufactures its own range of candles in the UK. The Glasgow based candle company has been operating for over 120 years, and until recently only traded from just one high-street location.
Since launching online, the business has grown significantly and Shearer Candles now employ around 50 staff and trades from three locations including a seasonal pop-up, and sells its products internationally.
Stephanie Barnet from Shearer Candles, whose family have run the business for three generations, said: “As the UK’s longest established creator and purveyor of lifestyle candles, everything we do is usually underpinned by long-standing tradition and heritage.
Selling on Amazon has been transformational for us! Each month we have seen sales growing from strength to strength; with an international customer base added to those from the high street.”
New mum takes baby shoes to the world
As a new mum, Helen had no experience running her own business. When she was given a pair of soft leather baby shoes for her son Josh, she was shocked at how expensive they were to buy. This spurred her into action, she drew a few designs, and started looking for suppliers and Dotty Fish was born.
Dotty Fish started selling its products on Amazon six years ago and now sells 80% of its products overseas, in places as far afield as Canada and Australia.
Helen Chapman, founder of Dotty Fish said: “As a company it’s exciting selling our soft leather baby shoes all over the world. We are very proud of each of our designs and the work we have put into getting the shoes just right for little feet.
Being able to sell internationally has really transformed our business and helped us grow to where we are today. The future looks bright for Dotty Fish.”
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