Amazon has announced who will be its country manager for Australia, as well as the opening of its first Australian fulfilment centre in Dandenong South, which is set to create “hundreds of jobs”.

An Amazon spokesperson confirmed to B&T that Rocco Braeuniger, currently director of consumables at Amazon.de, will move to the role of country manager for Amazon.com.au in the coming months.

Braeuniger joined Amazon in 2006 and has held a variety of positions during his 11 years at the company.

Amazon has also announced it will create “hundreds of new jobs” with the opening of its first Australian fulfilment centre in Dandenong South.

The tech and retail behemoth will begin recruiting immediately for a range of roles, including operations managers, pickers, packers, systems technicians and HR specialists.

Amazon recently announced its intention to bring a retail offering to Australia, and the opening of this 24,000-square metre fulfilment centre is an integral early step in the move towards that goal.

The new centre is located in the Pellicano’s M2 Industry Park in Dandenong South, providing easy access to the South Gippsland Highway, Monash Highway and Eastlink.

The building is also close to a wide range of amenities for employees. The lease of the centre was facilitated by CBRE’s industrial and logistics business.

Robert Bruce, Amazon’s director of operations for Australia, said: “We are thrilled to be creating hundreds of new roles in Dandenong South.

“This is just the start. Over time, we will bring thousands of new jobs to Australia and millions of dollars of investment, as well as opening up the opportunity for thousands of Australian businesses to sell at home and abroad through Amazon Marketplace.

“This new fulfilment centre will stock hundreds of thousands of products which will be available for delivery to customers across Australia when we launch our retail offering.

“We will be focusing on offering our Australian customers low prices on a great selection of products and can’t wait to get started.”

 

Amazon Web Services launched an Australian region in 2012 and Amazon launched a Kindle Store on Amazon.com.au in 2013. Amazon currently has almost 1,000 employees Down Under.

However, Amazon’s claim that its fulfilment centre will bring hundreds of new jobs to our shores is kind of ironic, if you consider the prediction of US marketing guru Scott Galloway.

He reckons that Amazon will become the world’s first trillion-dollar company by July 2020, before it is broken up “as we begin to connect the dots and realise this amazing company is destroying jobs faster than we can recreate them”.