Advertisement

Header Utility Menu

  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • Contact Us
  • Events

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram Get Our App

  • Login

Virginia Business

Mobile Menu

  • Issues
  • Industries
    • Banking/Finances
    • Law
    • Real Estate
    • Economic Development
    • Education
    • Energy/Green
    • Federal Contracting
    • Government
    • Healthcare
    • Hotels/Tourism
    • Insurance
    • Ports/Trade
    • Small Business
    • Startups
    • Technology
    • Transportation
  • Regions
    • Central Virginia
    • Eastern Virginia
    • Northern Virginia
    • Roanoke/New River Valley
    • Shenandoah Valley
    • Southern Virginia
    • Southwest Virginia
  • Reports
    • Best Places to Work
    • Business Person of the Year
    • CEO Pay
    • COVID-19
    • Generous Virginians Project
    • Legal Elite
    • Most Influential Virginians
    • Maritime Guide
    • Site Locator
    • The Big Book
    • Virginia CFO Awards
  • Company News
    • For the Record
    • People
  • Opinion
  • Lists
  • Awards/Events
    • Nominate a Virginia financial professional
    • Nominate A Woman in Leadership Today
    • 2022 Virginia Business Political Roundtable
    • Women in Leadership
    • Diversity Leadership Series
    • Virginia 500
    • Legal Elite
    • CFO Awards
    • Big Book of Lists
    • 100 People To Meet
    • Best Places To Work
  • Virginia 500
    • Read The Issue
    • Power Up Virginia 500
    • Buy an award plaque
    • Suggest execs for 2023

Advertisement

Header Primary Menu

  • Issues
    • June 2023
    • May 2023
    • April 2023
    • March 2023
    • February 2023
    • Issues Archive
  • Industries
    • Banking/Finances
    • Law
    • Real Estate
    • Economic Development
    • Education
    • Energy/Green
    • Federal Contracting
    • Government
    • Healthcare
    • Hotels/Tourism
    • Insurance
    • Ports/Trade
    • Small Business
    • Startups
    • Technology
    • Transportation
  • Regions
    • Central Virginia
    • Eastern Virginia
    • Northern Virginia
    • Roanoke/New River Valley
    • Shenandoah Valley
    • Southern Virginia
    • Southwest Virginia
  • Reports
    • Best Places to Work
    • Business Person of the Year
    • CEO Pay
    • COVID-19
    • Generous Virginians Project
    • Legal Elite
    • Most Influential Virginians
    • Maritime Guide
    • Site Locator
    • The Big Book
    • Virginia CFO Awards
  • Company News
    • For the Record
    • People
  • Opinion
  • Lists
  • Awards/Events
    • Nominate a Virginia financial professional
    • Nominate A Woman in Leadership Today
    • 2022 Virginia Business Political Roundtable
    • Women in Leadership
    • Diversity Leadership Series
    • Virginia 500
    • Legal Elite
    • CFO Awards
    • Big Book of Lists
    • 100 People To Meet
    • Best Places To Work
  • Virginia 500
    • Read The Issue
    • Power Up Virginia 500
    • Buy an award plaque
    • Suggest execs for 2023

Home News Industries Economic Development Youngkin tours Amazon’s new robotics fulfillment center in Suffolk

Youngkin tours Amazon’s new robotics fulfillment center in Suffolk

Alongside robots, 1,500 employees process 200k packages per day

Published October 20, 2022 by Robyn Sidersky

Amazon's 3.8 million square foot robotics fulfillment center in Suffolk opened in September. Photo by Robyn Sidersky

Amazon.com Inc.’s 3.8-million-square-foot robotics fulfillment center in Suffolk opened in September, but the global retail colossus held an official grand opening at the facility Thursday, allowing Amazon officials to show off the center to Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who attended the opening event and took a tour.

The $230 million, four-and-a-half-story building in Northgate Commerce Park is the second-largest building in Virginia — behind the Pentagon — and has 1,500 employees. It processes about 200,000 packages per day, with plans to ramp up to 1 million per day. 

General Manager Gregory Lum puts a vest on Gov. Glenn Youngkin before the pair tour Amazon’s robotics fulfillment center in Suffolk. Photo by Robyn Sidersky

Under construction for the past two years, it’s one of dozens of Amazon facilities around the commonwealth, including several in Hampton Roads, but it’s Amazon’s first robotics fulfillment center in Virginia. Located at 2020 Northgate Commerce Parkway, the facility is nine football fields long and has more than 13 miles of conveyance, Gregory Lum, the facility’s general manager told the crowd assembled for the center’s grand opening.

In addition to Youngkin, government officials in attendance included U.S. Rep Bobby Scott, state Secretary of Commerce and Trade Caren Merrick, Virginia Secretary of Transportation W. Sheppard “Shep” Miller III and state Del. Emily Brewer, R-Isle of Wight, among others.

“When I think of Amazon, I think of innovation. I think of boldness. I think of a company that is driven every day to be best in class. And those themes resonate with our governor, who wants Virginia to be best in class,” Merrick said during the event.

Youngkin highlighted the workforce Amazon is creating across the commonwealth, and the 30,000 jobs the company already has created here, as well as investments the retailer has made in logistics facilities and HQ2, Amazon’s $2.5 billion East Coast headquarters being built in Arlington, which is expected to create another 20,000 to 25,000 jobs over the next decade. 

“Today we have the chance to peek inside, peek inside at the amazing capabilities that drive Amazon’s ability to provide extraordinary customer service, state-of-the-art access and opportunity to customers, and oh, by the way, the coolest robots you have ever, ever seen,” Youngkin said. “What we will see today is the next generation of what robotics alongside an extraordinary workforce can do together … but it also represents the commitment that Amazon has made to maintain a culture that rests on innovation.”

The building represents Amazon’s newest robotics technology in the country, an Amazon spokesperson told Virginia Business. The Suffolk center packages items that are 18 inches or smaller and serves the entire mid-Atlantic region, one of the reasons for the facility’s immense size.

“We have introduced the robotics technology to help make our operations safer and more efficient and that’s exactly what they’re doing,” said Amazon spokesperson Rachael Lighty, adding that the robotic technology allows Amazon to ship packages to its customers faster and more efficiently, allowing human employees to focus on more sophisticated roles. Lum, the facility’s general manager, noted that the robots do “the heavy lifting” so humans don’t have to.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin chats with Amazon employee Tamya Crawford on a tour of the new facility in Suffolk. Photo by Robyn Sidersky

While touring the facility, Youngkin stopped to chat with employees working alongside robots to process and prepare customer orders for delivery. Thousands of items peeked out from yellow bins, waiting to be placed in Amazon-branded packaging. 

Youngkin stopped and spoke with Tamya Crawford, an area manager overseeing a team for one part of the fulfillment process. “It’s not easy work, but it’s rewarding,” said Crawford, who worked for Amazon for about a decade at facilities in Pennsylvania and Central Virginia before joining the Suffolk center this year.

  Subscribe to Virginia Business.   Get our daily e-newsletter.  

Related Stories

Amazon opens new Chesapeake facility

640,000-square-foot center has 900 workers already

Amazon fulfillment center in Chester

Amazon to open fulfillment center in Prince George County

This will create 150 jobs, paying a minimum wage of $15/hour

Norfolk software company to expand, create 37 jobs

SVT Robotics will invest about $100,000 in a lab

Trending

Great expectations

Small yet mighty

The 50 largest Virginia charities

Va. Beach economic development director to depart

NNS announces senior leadership changes

Sponsored Stories

Are you the biggest target for cyber security bad actors?

Preparing a Domestic Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) bid in Today’s Market

P.A.I.N.T. Your Financial Mountain

Advertisement

Advertisement

Trending

Great expectations

Small yet mighty

The 50 largest Virginia charities

Va. Beach economic development director to depart

NNS announces senior leadership changes

Sponsored Stories

Are you the biggest target for cyber security bad actors?

Preparing a Domestic Less-Than-Truckload (LTL) bid in Today’s Market

P.A.I.N.T. Your Financial Mountain

Get Virginia Business directly on your tablet or in your mailbox!

Subscribe to Virginia Business

Advertisement

Advertisement

Footer Primary Menu

  • virginiabusiness.com
  • Subscribe
  • Advertise
  • About Us
  • Contact Us

Footer Secondary Menu

  • Industries
  • Regions
  • Reports
  • Company News
  • Events

Sign Up For Our Newsletter

Sign Up

LinkedIn Facebook Twitter Instagram Get Our App

Privacy Policy Cookie Policy

Footer Utility Menu

Copyright © 2023 Virginia Business. All rights reserved.

Site Maintained by TechArk

wpDiscuz