Inc. today opened its largest campus building globally in the city of Hyderabad as it prepares for a furious expansion and battle with nemesis Walmart Inc. in one of the world’s fastest-growing retail markets. The Seattle-headquartered company is making an ambitious push in India, the last major retail frontier still primarily reliant on smallscale neighbourhood and mom-and-pop stores. “E-commerce is so small in India relative to the total consumption, less than 3%,” said Amit Agarwal, Amazon’s country manager for India.
AFP■ The campus in Hyderabad was built over three years and can accommodate up to 15,000 workers.
The largely untapped country is critical to the global domination plans of both Amazon and Walmart, the latter of which spent $16 billion last year to buy India’s biggest startup, retailer Flipkart.
Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has so far pledged $5.5 billion for its India operations.
Built in Hyderabad over three years, the new campus is Amazon’s first owned building outside of the US, spans 1.8 million square feet of office space and will accommodate 15,000 workers. “The largest buildings in Seattle house about 5,000 employees,” remarked John Schoettler, vicepresident of Amazon’s global real estate and facilities. He said the campus was Amazon’s largest in the world but has plenty more room to grow.
“This facility will build services globally,” Agarwal added.
Source: Hindustan Times (Mumbai) dated August 22, 2019
