Amazon opens country's largest fulfilment centre in Hyderabad

It has a carpet area of 4 lakh sq feet, along with a storage space of 2.1 mn cubic feet

American e-commerce company Amazon on Thursday opened its largest fulfilment centre (FC) in the country at the GMR-led Rajiv Gandhi International Airport in Hyderabad, even as the country prepares for the upcoming festive season.

The new facility has a carpet area of around 4 lakh square feet, along with a storage space of close to 2.1 million cubic feet. This is Amazon's fifth fulfilment centre in Telangana, thereby increasing the firm's overall storage capacity to 3.3 million square feet in the state. The retail major plans to facilitate faster deliveries in the region.

In May, the company said it would double its storage capacity in India, from its existing figure of 13 million cubic feet, in the next few months. At present, Amazon owns around 41 FCs across the country. 

Retail major is also looking to expand its grocery sales initiative to over 20 cities across the country this year, besides making improvement in its regular business of selling consumer durables, electronic products and mobile phones, among others through its online platform.

It had recently opened an FC in Haryana with a 1.3 million cubic feet of storage capacity.

"Our vision is to transform the way India buys and sells. At Amazon, we have been consistently investing in our infrastructure and delivery network, so we can increase our speed of delivery and provide a superior experience to both- customers and sellers. With the launch of the largest FC in Telangana, we strongly believe that we will be able to serve our customers better. The FC will enable sellers to use local infrastructure, save capital and grow their business," said Akhil Saxena, vice president, India Customer Fulfilment of Amazon India.

With more than 10,000 sellers in Telangana, delivery time in the region has improved by leaps and bounds, claims Amazon.

In June, the company had informed that its seller-base in India doubled to 2 lakh, from 1 lakh last year. Its online platform offers access to over 100 million products across multiple categories in India.

Meanwhile, Telangana government said Amazon's latest investment signifies the growing interest of large global enterprises in the state. The state's IT Minister, K T Rama Rao, re-iterated Telangana's efforts to improve ease-of-doing business in the region by roping in major industry players like Amazon.