1,700 Christmas jobs at Rugeley Amazon centre

Up to 1,700 temporary jobs are up for grabs at the new Amazon distribution centre in Rugeley, Staffordshire, as the company ramps up operations for Christmas, it emerged today.

The online retailer opened its 700,000sq ft new centre at Towers Business Park last month, and today revealed hundreds of extra temporary roles in sorting and customer service would be on offer to cope with the seasonal increase in demand.

The news comes as Amazon shocked investors in the US by revealing its third quarter net income plunged 73 per cent, to just £39 million, despite growing sales, after it increased spending on new products such as the Kindle Fire tablet.

Amazon is also spending heavily on expanding its business. It is building 17 distribution centres worldwide instead of just the two previously planned. This includes the new centre at Rugeley, where it has almost doubled previous staffing estimates.