By Leos Rousek
PRAGUE--U.S. online retailer Amazon Inc. (AMZN) has scrapped
plans to open one of its new European distribution centers in the
second largest Czech city of Brno, and is looking for a new
location to meet its goal of building five centers in the region
through 2015, the company's director of European operations said
Wednesday.
"We respect the decision of the city of Brno and we won't pursue
this project," Tim Collins said, referring to a recent decision by
the city's council to withdraw its building permit for the planned
large-sized warehouse to be located near the city's international
airport.
Nevertheless, the retailer is still pushing ahead with its plans
to open five new so called 'fulfillment centers' in the region to
process and dispatch customer orders as part of a European
expansion.
Amazon earlier said that it plans to invest more than 100
million euros ($138 million) in each of its new distribution
centers to serve clients in Germany, Austria and southeastern
Europe.
The company is on schedule to build its other Czech site,
located near Prague, and three in Poland. Each new Amazon warehouse
will cover an area of about 95,000 square meters, or equal to about
13 European soccer pitches.
The company is currently looking for a replacement location for
its warehouse originally planned for Brno, which is strategically
located some 130 kilometers (83 miles) north Vienna, the capital of
Austria, and 100 kilometers west of Bratislava in Slovakia.
"We're exploring possibilities for another location in the
(Central European) region," Mr. Collins said, declining to
elaborate further.
Write to Leos Rousek at leos.rousek@wsj.com
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