Amazon to operate multi-story, robot-equipped warehouse in Czechia

Online retail giant Amazon is now the owner of a newly completed warehouse in central Moravia. Once its operations are in full swing next year, the Kojetín Industrial Park could offer up to 2,000 jobs.

This will be the online retail giant’s second warehouse in Czechia, following one in Dobrovíz, Central Bohemia that opened in 2015.

Built by industrial construction firm Panattoni, and financed by the Accolade group, this is Czechia’s first multi-story distribution center. Valued at more than CZK 5 billion, the building boasts a high level of energy self-sufficiency.

The warehouse will have a special robotic unit to facilitate the work of employees. The four-story distribution center has a total area of more than 187,000 square meters.

“We are handing over to Amazon a building that is number one in terms of the connection of modern technologies and environmental friendliness. The Dobrovíz project was already unique in these areas, but with the distribution center in Kojetín we have once again moved several generations further,” Pavel Sovička, CEO of Panattoni for the Czech Republic and Slovakia, said according to media reports.

“I believe that the state-of-the-art logistics complex will help Amazon in its further expansion in the e-commerce sector, which has been experiencing a boom in recent years. The project will also be beneficial for the region thanks to a large number of job opportunities,” Sovička added.

The new distribution hall was built on a brownfield formerly used by a sugar factory for its settling tanks. The site had to be rehabilitated, with ecological issues resolved, before construction began.

“Investment in the revitalization of aging or dilapidated sites is our specialty. I am proud that we have once again succeeded in creating an industrial zone on land with low ecological value, which will rank at the very top in the field of environmentally friendly and technological construction,” Accolade Group CEO Milan Kratina said.

The logistics hall was built to meet strict environmental requirements. Accolade states it is aiming for BREEAM New Construction sustainable approach certification at the "Excellent" level. The certification takes place after the building is finished. BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) is the oldest and most widely recognized certification for the sustainability of buildings.

The certification evaluates not only the energy efficiency of the building and other operational factors, but also the environmental impact of the construction process. Many of the building panels were made at a factory some 12 kilometers from the construction site and moved by rail. This eliminated over 2,200 truck trips.

The area around the warehouse will feature a lizard habitat and bee hives, as well as 500 trees, out of which around 300 will be planted at the warehouse and the rest in Kojetín.

“We care about the operation being environmentally friendly, which is why we installed modern 4 MW photovoltaic panels on the roof. To give you an idea, this exceeds ordinary home installations by three orders of magnitude,” Michal Šmíd, Amazon's general manager for the Czechia, said.

Amazon originally had planned an even larger presence in Czechia. Another warehouse was supposed to be built in Brno, but the plan was dropped in 2014 due to local opposition. Plans to build a warehouse in the Prague district of Horní Počernice were also canceled in 2016 due to the Town Hall’s concerns over the environment.