Amazon started operations in its newly built fulfillment center in Dobrovíz on the western outskirts of Prague. The ribbon cutting ceremony was attended by the Czech minister of industry and trade Jan Mládek and the head of CzechInvest Karel Kučera. Amazon has hired 1500 staff to run the center, and is expected to taken on another 500. Up to 3,000 could be employed on a temporary basis for peak seasons by 2018. Pavel Sovička, general director of Panattoni Europe for Czech Republic and Slovakia says that 40 percent of the warehouse is now operational, with the remaining 60 percent still to be equipped before the 2015 Christmas season.
The largest logistic warehouse ever built in the Czech Republic offers 95,000 sqm of storage space, together with 9,300 sqm space for offices and social amenities. The developer Panattoni built the €75m facility in nine months for the investor, AEW Logistis. The center is part of Amazon’s European network of 28 centers, with five now operational in the CE: three in Poland and two in the CR. The American e-retailer continues to search for another location in the Czech Republic to replace the failed project in Brno, according to the director of Amazon operations in CE Erwin Brunner. Brunner denied speculation that another returned-goods center is being planned at the P3 park in Prague Horní Počernice.
