The online retailer Amazon will build a new robotic distribution center in Kojetín in the Přerov Region, which will create more than 2,000 jobs. The construction of the logistics center in the industrial park on the outskirts of Kojetín will be completed next year, its full commissioning is planned for 2023. Amazon has already started recruiting the first employees, so far mainly specialists. The recruitment of employees who will process customer orders in Kojetín is scheduled for the second quarter of 2022. Amazon’s general manager for the Czech Republic, Michal Šmíd, told CTK today.
According to Šmíd, Amazon will expand its product range with the help of a new distribution center in Kojetín and will support a growing number of independent small businesses that sell their goods through its e-shop. The center’s staff will prepare, package and send small items to customers, such as books, electronics and consumer goods. The operation in Kojetín will be equipped with modern technology, including robotic units.
“These specialized robots slide under the product shelves, lift them and move them around the distribution center, thus helping to reduce the time required to process orders. In Kojetín, we will offer work with higher added value for qualified employees,” said Šmíd.
The American concern Amazon is the largest online store in the world, together with Google, Apple and Microsoft it belongs to the so-called big four technology companies in the world. Amazon has been operating in the Czech Republic since 2013, investing a total of over 26 billion crowns. The first Amazon distribution center in the Czech Republic was opened in 2015 in the village of Dobrovíz. The company now employs over 4,000 people.
The robotic center for Amazon will be built in Kojetín on a brownfield after the former settling tanks of the sugar factory, the builder of the Panattoni industrial zones. The 52,000-square-meter building will offer almost 190,000 square feet of leasable space on four floors. The zone was prepared by the Accolade Group, which is also the investor and owner of the industrial park.
“This is a huge opportunity for the whole region, especially in terms of investment and a large number of new jobs. The Dobrovíz project has already been riddled with modern technologies, but the existing one will be several generations away, organization, “said Panattoni CEO for the Czech Republic and Slovakia Pavel Sovička.
The Přerov region has the highest share of the unemployed in the Olomouc Region. In April, it was 4.3 percent, while the share of the unemployed in the whole region was 3.3 percent. At the end of August, 3,741 job seekers were registered in the Přerov region. Of the 21 authorized municipal authorities in the Olomouc Region, Kojetínsko alone shows the fourth highest unemployment rate of 4.7 percent, which in absolute numbers is 407 job seekers.
