Location, location, location...

Image by Emma Johns

Over to Milton Keynes yesterday for a meeting at the Open University. On the way, went past the huge Amazon Distribution Centre at Marston Gate, right next to the M1 Junction 13 as you can see on the Google Earth image below - the location is obviously perfect in terms of transportation links. As well as the M1, it is 20 minutes from Luton Airport, and next to the Thames Link rail line.
It is "the largest e-commerce distribution centre in Europe. This purpose built facility occupies the same space as eight football pitches, equivalent to the length of three London Eye’s stacked on top of each other."

"The 46,450 square foot Marston Gate Distribution Centre was opened in November 2000 with over 300 people involved in its construction. The centre delivers orders placed at Amazon.co.uk to customers across the country and to more than 200 countries worldwide. In the Distribution Centre there are four different picking levels in the picking tower with 82 rows of shelves per level. To move products around the centre, over 5,000 metres of conveyor belts are used equivalent to the length of 500 double decker buses. During Christmas last year, Amazon.co.uk experienced its biggest shipment day ever, when it dispatched more than 300,000 items."

Information from Discover Bedfordshire and Luton webpage

Has also introduced ENERGY EFFICIENCY measures.

Just further along the road was the giant John Lewis distribution centre.