CANTON, Miss. —
The first Amazon robotics facility in Mississippi is up and running in Canton.
Operations at the fulfillment center began July 24 after months of delays.
When fully staffed, the 3 million-square-foot facility in Madison County will have about 1,500 employees working alongside more than 4,000 robots.
“Amazon has invested $600 million into the state of Mississippi over the last several years. This is something we should certainly all be very proud of,” said Gov. Tate Reeves.
According to Jessica Breaux, the economic development manager at the facility, Amazon will bring growth to the region in many ways.
“We really want to look for opportunities to be a part of the community,” Breaux said. “We will be looking, and partnering, with local organizations on different community engagement efforts.”
The site functions as a holding and sorting facility for many products Amazon sells and ships.
“You’ll see opportunities for increased shipping speeds, you will have certainly an investment of capital into the region, from the construction of the facility, but also the new job opportunities for local residents,” Breaux said.
The Madison County facility currently has about 800 full-time employees. Once all positions are filled, the site will be able to process up to a million packages a day. Before the use of robots, similarly-sized Amazon facilities were able to process about 40,000 packages a day.