Amazon to recruit 800 staff for old Jaguar site in Coventry

The main warehouse is 40,000 square metres - the size of more than five football pitches

Amazon has confirmed it is building a 24-hour distribution centre on a site equivalent to 18 football pitches.

Coventry City Council approved plans for the development on Jaguar's former Browns Lane site in November.

Amazon said it will start recruiting more than 800 full-time staff including engineers, IT specialists and warehouse operators later this year.

Councillor Jim O'Boyle said the firm was "working towards" the 1,600 jobs stated in its planning application.

Browns Lane was home to Jaguar car production until it moved to Castle Bromwich in 2005.

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The Labour councillor, who is in charge of development in the city, said he was waiting for written confirmation from Amazon but was reassured "there will be plenty more jobs than 800", adding the firm had put in a planning application to extend the car park which is set to have places for 700 cars and 127 heavy goods vehicles.

Stefano Perego, Amazon's Director of UK Customer Fulfilment said: "The new site will be our first dedicated receive centre in the UK and we look forward to collect applications from people interested in receiving competitive pay and comprehensive benefits from day one, working at Amazon."

The council had received 106 letters of objection to the plans for the site, including over concerns about the environmental impact on the area and that the site was not being used for housing or for manufacturing.