The company confirmed it was opening a delivery station in Weybridge, but declined to comment whether this would form part of Amazon Fresh in the UK, calling the potential launch of a grocery service “rumour and speculation”.
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He did not have any predictions about the size or the range Amazon Fresh was likely to offer, but he said it would want to have a strong product offer from the off.
Asked whether the warehouse would be used as a base for Amazon Fresh he said the company would not comment on rumours and speculation.
Amazon’s grocery service has been available in Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and most recently San Diego on the West coast of USA and now the UK’s beleaguered supermarket chains may have to deal with a new challenge.
Currently, the e-tailer sells household essentials from tea to toothpaste but, as its name suggests, Amazon Fresh will deliver fresh produce including fruit and veg.
Amazon has stepped up its investment in UK delivery services in recent months.
It is understood that Clegg Food Projects is overhauling the Weybridge site, which will be Amazon’s 15th delivery station in the UK.
But it added its Surrey warehouse would directly employ around 20 people and around 140 drivers, who would work for independent delivery firms. It has been empty since Tesco closed its distribution centre in 2013 with the loss of hundreds of jobs.
“With the launch of the one-hour service it started in central London and this looks to be the most likely place for Amazon Fresh to start”.
Last month Amazon, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary, briefly became the world’s biggest retailer by market value by leapfrogging Asda owner Wal-Mart.
However, the business has long confounded investors by rarely turning a profit. Billion entrepreneur Bezos is a modern day phenomenon; building up the firm from his Seattle garage as an online bookshop in 1994 to revenues of $89 billion twenty years later.
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It prefers to invest heavily in expanding its operations and launching new services, such as video streaming, TV content production and its Kindle mobile devices.
