Primed for The Peg

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This article was published 05/10/2020 (1875 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Brace yourselves, Winnipeggers, a trillion-dollar retail giant is coming to town. 

“Amazon couldn’t be prouder to make ourselves a part of Winnipeg’s talented workforce,” said Tushar Kumar, regional director of logistics at the multinational e-commerce company, joining Manitoba’s Economic Development and Training Minister Ralph Eichler at the legislative building Monday via video-conference. 

“We’re excited to open our doors to this community and for Manitoba to welcome us as we continue expanding across Canada.”

With plans to open a delivery station as early as next year, Amazon has already acquired a 113,000-square-foot warehouse in the Inkster Industrial Park — in close proximity to Winnipeg’s Richardson International Airport.

Government sources told the Free Press Monday the precise location for Amazon’s new site is 11 Plymouth St., which previously housed global polymer processing company REHAU North America.

A real estate listing for the property on Cushman & Wakefield Winnipeg suggests it is valued at $12,890,000 and was built in 1974. Government officials said Amazon plans to refurbish the site, which currently has seven loading docks and annual property taxes around $117,103.

“This new delivery station will allow us to provide fast and efficient delivery for customers,” said Kumar. “We’ll be able to provide hundreds of job opportunities that are direct and indirect full-time and part-time jobs.”

Without specifying exact figures for how many jobs the new site will bring or how much they will pay, he added Amazon will primarily hire workers for parcel sorting, management and third-party delivery services that “will power our last-mile capabilities to speed up deliveries.”

“Any job right now is a good job for the province, especially if they’re coming from global leaders like Amazon.”
– Manitoba’s Economic Development and Training Minister Ralph Eichler

That means the delivery station will ensure customers’ packages arrive at their door after the facility has received them from other distribution centres. In cities like Toronto, such Amazon sites have been able to provide customers with large deliveries the same day they’ve been ordered.

Jobs from the site, Eichler noted, “are more than welcome during this crucial time during the COVID-19 pandemic.” 

“We’re restarting our economy,” said Eichler. “And any job right now is a good job for the province, especially if they’re coming from global leaders like Amazon.”

When asked whether Amazon’s Winnipeg site — the first of its kind in the Canadian Prairies — will also serve areas outside the city’s municipalities, Kumar told the Free Press the station will only serve Winnipeg metro area customers for now.

“I can’t share a lot of the details per se,” he added, “but I can certainly say that we pick our last-mile centres on customer demand within those regions.”

Moments after Monday’s announcement, reaction from Winnipeg’s business community and Manitoba’s official opposition leaders was mixed.

“We’re certainly very happy to have more jobs here,” said Jamie Moses, economic development and training critic for the NDP. “But what we’re wary about is that Amazon must pay its workers liveable wages and create safe jobs.” 

Moses said he’s also worried about the impact Amazon will have on the city’s small businesses.

“I think it’ll likely drive competition having them here,” said Loren Remillard, CEO and president of the Winnipeg Chamber of Commerce. “To me, however, any competition is good competition for our industry.”

He said it’s also a “big vote of confidence for Winnipeg, in general, having the world’s biggest online shopping site in our own city.” 

“But I would be a little cautiously mindful,” added Remillard. “Because certainly this will cause a big disruption for our markets — especially those businesses that have already been struggling.”

Kumar said local entrepreneurs could also build their businesses by partnering with Amazon and delivering packages with the company exclusively. 

“We don’t have those kind of connections in the city right now,” he said. “But I certainly hope the community will welcome us and we can build those partnerships moving forward.”

 

Twitter: @temurdur

Temur.Durrani@freepress.mb.ca