Amazon opens largest office

Hyderabad: With leases on few of its offices coming to an end soon, Amazon will consolidate and shift its workforce in Hyderabad, which forms nearly one-third of the total workforce in India, into its largest campus building in the world, a top company official said here on Wednesday.

Speaking to the media after inauguration of the new building, Amazon India SVP and Country Manager, Amit Agarwal, said, “currently, we have eight buildings in Hyderabad. It is natural for us to look to bringing people together at one place. We would do that (consolidation) in phases... We don’t have a timeline set for the building. Our goal is to have capacity to keep growing in the coming years.”

Currently, Amazon employs around 60,000 in the country. Out of it, nearly 20,000, or one in three Amazon employees, works based out of Hyderabad. The company has already shifted nearly 4,000 of its employee from centres across the city into the new building.

The new building, located on a 9.5 acre campus, would be the first to be owned by Amazon outside the US. It can accommodate around 15,000 employees, who will cater to the entire spans of the company’s global portfolio.

John Schoettler, vice-president (global real estate and facilities), Amazon, who was present for the inauguration, said the infrastructure has been designed as per Amazon’s exacting standards to foster inclusion and a sense of belonging among its staff.

However, when asked if the slowdown in economy has started to affect the company’s business in India, Mr Aggarwal said, “currently, e-commerce contributes to only three per cent of the total retail business in the country. In terms of Amazon, we continue to see growth in all aspects. For Amazon Prime, India is one of its biggest, where our user base has nearly doubled.”

The e-commerce giant, which has been very bullish on Hyderabad, houses its largest India fulfilment centre spread over four lakh sq ft at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport.