Amazon has announced a consultation on plans to shutter a major UK warehouse that’s been operating for nearly three decades. The giant American multinational company opened the fulfilment centre at Marston Gate, Milton Keynes, back in 1998, marking its first depot in Britain.
But the site looks set to be shuttered in a major blow for its workforce, though Amazon has offered the 590 workers impacted by the potential move the opportunity to transfer to a bigger site set to open in Northampton or other locations « depending on the role ». A spokesperson for the firm said: « We’re always evaluating our network to make sure it fits our business needs and to improve the experience for our employees and customers.
« Today we’ve announced a consultation on a proposal to close our fulfilment centre in Milton Keynes and to offer employees an opportunity to transfer to our brand-new site in Northampton – a larger, state-of-the-art building which will employ up to 2,000 people – or to other Amazon sites. »
The company said supporting staff through during the process is its « top priority ».
A collective consultation with affected employees will now begin, the spokesperson said. The £500million Northampton site where some may end up, is set to open in May and will be employing « 1,400 people initially, and rising to 2,000 ».
An exact location for the building hasn’t yet been revealed.
Amazon’s sortation centre in Magna Park, also in Milton Keynes, will not be impacted by the move, MK Citizen reports.
Sortation centres are where packaged orders sent from fulfillment centres are sent on to local delivery stations.
The Amazon spokesperson said the company is « investing £40 billion in the UK over three years (2025-2027) ».
« This investment includes building a total of four new fulfilment centres (including the Northampton site), and other new delivery stations nationwide,” they added.
Amazon is one of the world’s most valuable publicly traded companies, and has a market capitalisation of $2.54 trillion (£1.8 trillion).
The firm, which was founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos in 1994, has distribution centres across the world, and said it was employing more than 75,000 people in over 100 sites across the UK alone as of June 2025.
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