Behind the Boxes: Unwrapping Amazon's UK Distribution Landscape
14th December 2023
Behind the Boxes: Unwrapping Amazon's UK Distribution Landscape
Location Analysis of Amazon's Distribution Centers
As of 2023, the UK has 27 Amazon distribution centres (ADCs) ranging in size from 600,000 to 1 million square feet depending on their catchment and products supplied. These are technologically advanced facilities employing thousands of employees each working alongside robots that are responsible for picking, packing, and subsequently transporting Amazon deliveries.
Delivering close to one billion packages annually, ADCs play an almighty role fulfilling Christmas days across the UK! Ensuring their Amazon Distribution Centres are strategically placed is vital for maximizing customer accessibility and minimizing transit costs with shorter journeys. Interestingly, most ADCs lie within a band extending from East London to Liverpool (Figure 1), potentially due to their proximity to transport links, ideal land for building massive facilities, and younger workforce. At either end, ADCs are facilitated by significant port and rail infrastructure, maximizing incoming international delivery distribution.
Leading up to Christmas, retailers such as Amazon depend on their distribution networks to ensure Santa delivers on time! Furthermore, nowadays many Christmas days are propped up by the speed and efficiency of Amazon deliveries. At GMAP, we have generated drivetime catchments using our MVPLUS mapping software to visualize and analyse the regions of UK best served by Amazon Distribution Centres.
30% of the UK Population Live within 30 minutes of an ADC
Almost 30% of the UK population live within 30 minutes drivetime of an Amazon Distribution Centre (Figure 2). These catchments effective cover East London, Birmingham, and Liverpool, and many smaller cities between. These catchments likely have younger populations providing for ADCs large manual workforce demands, and potentially also being larger consumers of Amazon products.
Many of these ADCs lie close to the North-South M6 and M1 motorways, maximizing catchment areas even with short drivetimes. However, Northern Ireland, Central and Northern Scotland, and South-West England are untouched by 30-minute drivetimes from ADCs, likely owing to their poorer transport infrastructure and smaller customer bases. Amazon Manchester serves the greatest population within 30 minutes drivetime, at approximately 2.2 million, whilst Amazon Gourock serves the smallest population, at approximately 100,000.
Over 42 Million People Live Within 60 Minutes of an ADC
The greatest increase in customer base occurs between 30- and 60-minute drivetimes, where over 42 million people, ~63% of the UK population live within (Figure 3). Greater London and Central England are now entirely within 60 minutes of an ADC. The UK’s largest cities: London, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester, and Glasgow are fully served by ADCs, accounting for the significant rise in customer base. A large proportion of the Welsh population residing in Cardiff and Swansea also now reside within an ADC catchment. Cumbria, Northumberland, and Southwest England remain excluded from ADC catchments, in addition to Central and Northern Scotland. Amazon Hemel Hempstead serves the greatest population at almost 5.5 million, whilst Amazon’s 2nd Doncaster center serves only ~200,000.
3/4 of the UK Live Within 90 Minutes of an ADC
Over 50 million people (74%) live within 90 minutes of an Amazon Distribution Centre. By 90-minutes, most of Wales becomes covered, in addition to the central belt in which a large portion of Scotland’s population live (Figure 4). However, Cumbria and Northumberland remain outside these catchments, along with the entirety of Southwest England. This is surprising given several cities: Plymouth, Exeter, Bath, and Southampton support a sizeable combined customer base. Amazon Hemel Hempstead serves the greatest population at over 7.3 million, whilst Amazon’s 2nd Doncaster center only provides for an additional ~200,000, though Doncaster’s main ADC provides for ~4 million.
South-West and Newcastle are Not Within 2-Hours of an ADC
83% of the UK population are served by an Amazon Distribution Centre within a 2 hour drivetime. Newcastle, Exeter, and Plymouth remain the only large settlements not provided for by an ADC at this drivetime range, despite their proximity to the M1 and M5 respectively (Figure 5). Northern Scotland remains isolated from ADCs, though this is unsurprising given its least densely populated region of the UK and has limited transport infrastructure. Amazon Dunfermline has greatly expanded its coverage to most of Southern Scotland, supporting a significant portion of Scotland’s population.
Wales is now fully covered within these catchments, including through its most remote central and north regions. Amazon Hemel Hempstead continues to supply to the greatest number of customers at almost 9 million, with its catchment encompassing West London and Southern cities including Southampton.
Most of England are Within 3-Hours of an ADC
By 3-hour drivetimes, the whole of England excluding South Devon and Cornwall are within an Amazon Distribution Centre catchment (Figure 6). Southern and Central Scotland are entirely covered by Amazon Gourock and Dunfermline centers, serving ~5 million customers, or 90% of Scotland’s population. Amazon Dunfermline has the largest unbroken catchment being one of 2 ADCs in Scotland, and with good transport links via the A1, M9, M8 and M74.
Amazon Swansea is an important Amazon Distribution Centre for customers in South Wales and extending into Southwest England close to Plymouth, which remains the only large settlement (population ~250,000) not covered by an ADC. At the range, Amazon Hemel Hempstead operates for ~10 million customers, whilst at the other end of the spectrum Amazon’s 2nd Doncaster center; Amazon Warrington, and Amazon Rugeley serve less than 500,000 customers each, filling in ‘gaps’ in coverage of preexisting centers.
