Luxembourg, 24 November 2014: Amazon today announced it will open a 46,000 sq ft fashion photography studio in Shoreditch, London in 2015. The studio will be one of the largest of its kind in Europe and will provide both on-model and off-model imaging for Amazon’s rapidly growing European fashion business.

The site which is owned by Transport for London (TfL) will be leased by Amazon and is set to be its largest photography studio in Europe.

Amazon.co.uk launched its fashion offering in 2007 with a Shoe Store, Jewellery Store and Watches Store, before launching its Clothing Store one year later. In the run up to Christmas last year, Amazon.co.uk received orders of more than one million fashion items in a single week.

Since the start of 2014, Amazon has signed more than 100 new fashion brands including Hugo Boss and Gucci watches for Autumn/Winter 2014 and its growing selection includes Emporio Armani, Ted Baker, French Connection, Casio, Vivienne Westwood, Puma, Missoni, Moschino, Levis, and Ben Sherman.

In September 2014, Amazon became an official patron of the British Fashion Council and released its AW14 menswear editorial campaign featuring Kaiser Chiefs. In recent weeks Amazon has unveiled two exclusive collections with British based designers – Osman (www.amazon.co.uk/osman) and Solange Azagury-Partridge (www.amazon.co.uk/solange).

“Fashion is one of the fastest growing businesses for Amazon across Europe and the creation of this new studio illustrates both our ambitions in this area and our dedication to providing a first class customer experience,” said Sergio Bucher, Vice President of Amazon Fashion EU. “Our new studio will enable us to produce high volumes of top class photography by employing great talent in one of the leading fashion capitals of the world.”

The new Amazon Fashion photography studio will be situated on Geffrye Street, Hoxton, in a former glass factory. Development of the site will commence immediately with the studio to open by summer 2015. Amazon expects to create 35 new permanent roles at the studio with up to 50 freelancers also being brought in as a result of seasonal demand. Together, they will be responsible for producing hundreds of thousands of images every year.

“We continue to invest heavily in London and are delighted to make it the new home for Amazon’s fashion photography across Europe” said Christopher North, Managing Director of Amazon.co.uk Ltd. “By summer 2015, around 2,000 corporate employees will be based in London across three offices and this brand new studio. We expect to create thousands of new jobs in the capital over the coming years.”

Graeme Craig, Director of Commercial Development at TfL said: “The lease with Amazon for our site is another example of what we are doing to make the best use of our assets to generate revenue from third parties. All revenue will be reinvested back into the transport network to make journeys better for everyone, bear down on fares and continue to deliver value for money for our customers.” 

Amazon currently has two corporate offices in London - 60 Holborn Viaduct which opened last year and Glasshouse Yard, near the Barbican, which opened in 2012. Amazon recently announced that it will also take temporary occupancy of 1 Leadenhall Court in April 2015 and will open a new corporate office at Principal Place in Shoreditch in 2017. Amazon currently has 1,700 corporate employees, who will all be located in London by the summer of 2015, and will have total capacity for over 5,000 people in London from 2017.

In 2013, Amazon opened a 40,000 square ft imaging studio in Brooklyn, New York, which supports Amazon’s US fashion business.

-ENDS-

For more information please contact Katie Keenan, kkeenan@amazon.co.uk or contact the Amazon Press Office, pressoffice@amazon.co.uk and 0208 636 9280.

About Amazon
Amazon opened on the World Wide Web in July 1995. The company is guided by four principles: customer obsession rather than competitor focus, passion for invention, commitment to operational excellence, and long-term thinking. Customer reviews, 1-Click shopping, personalized recommendations, Prime, Fulfillment by Amazon, AWS, Kindle Direct Publishing, Kindle, Fire phone, Fire tablets, and Fire TV are some of the products and services pioneered by Amazon.

About Transport for London
Transport for London is responsible for the planning, delivery and day-to-day operation of the Capital’s public transport system. It manages London’s buses, London Underground, the Docklands Light Railway (DLR), London Overground and London Tramlink. It also runs London River Services, Victoria Coach Station, the Emirates Air Line and London Transport Museum. As well as running London’s Congestion Charging scheme, TfL manages a 580km network of main roads, all of the city’s 6,000 traffic lights, regulates taxis and the private hire trade and runs Barclays Cycle Hire.
CBRE represented TfL in the negotiations of the lease.