“We’ve become a major driver for the Spanish economy and its people – we’re an integral part of the country´s business fabric and the communities where we live and work. Since we launched amazon.es in 2011, we have invested over €10.5 billion in the country and currently employ 18,000 talented individuals who receive competitive pay and comprehensive benefits from day one. We will continue working with them and the thousands of Spanish SMEs that trust us. For this reason, we have committed to reaching 25,000 permanent employees and training 50,000 SMEs and entrepreneurs to sell online in Spain before the end of 2025.” - Mariangela Marseglia, VP and Country Manager, Amazon.it & Amazon.es

Investing in infrastructure

Since 2011, Amazon has invested more than €10.5 billion in our Spanish operations. This includes both capital expenditure (such as the infrastructure we build, our logistics centers, corporate offices and cloud infrastructure), and operating expenditure (such as the salaries we pay to our employees). In 2021 alone, we invested over €3.7 billion in the country as we try to get closer to our customers and improve our services but also to continue supporting the more than 12,000 small and medium size businesses that sell on Amazon. Currently, almost 60% of the items sold on Amazon come from third-party sellers. Their success is our success and we will continue investing in tools, services and infrastructure so they can help Spain recover faster as we get out of the pandemic.

In 2021, we opened several new sites, and we currently have around 40 facilities throughout Spain, including both operations and corporate offices. Amazon's economic impact does not only benefit large urban areas, but also smaller towns in different regions with limited employment opportunities. In addition to these openings, we are rapidly growing our software development centers - Tech Hubs - in Madrid and Barcelona, where nearly 600 software developers, computer engineers and data scientists work on apps for Amazon Business, Kindle and books, retail and artificial intelligence. Earlier in 2022, we announced the arrival of Lab126 to the Madrid tech hub where they plan to hire 100 people to work on the next generation of Amazon devices.

Creating jobs

Since our arrival in 2011, Amazon has become one of the top 15 companies with the highest number of employees in the country. We have hired 11,000 new permanent employees in the past two years. That´s an average of more than 100 permanent jobs per week, all with a competitive salary and a comprehensive benefits package from day one, including a retirement savings plan and health insurance. Amazon now has a total of 18,000 permanent employees in Spain and has pledged to take this number to 25,000 by 2025.

The company offers career opportunities for all kinds of people, from those who have just entered the labor market to people with decades of experience. There’s a role for everyone, from our operations sites and logistics network to our research and development hubs and corporate headquarters. All of our employees are paid a competitive salary and receive a comprehensive benefits package, including health insurance.

Amazon is a gateway into the world of work for many younger people. Since 2018, over 1,500 people we’ve recruited have been under the age of 28, and the average age of an Amazon employee in Spain is 34. Many of the jobs we created during 2021 were in high-skills, high-demand professions. As an example, during that year we recruited over 350 people into software development, information technology, and engineering roles.

Amazon’s global Leadership Principles include an ambition to become “Earth's best employer”. It’s an ambition we take very seriously, and it informs every aspect of how we engage with and support the people who work for us. In Spain in 2021 and 2022, we received the Top Employer certification in recognition of our diverse and inclusive work environment, our professional development opportunities, and the training programs we are offering to employees. Amazon has also been named the most attractive company to work for in the country, according to Randstad research surveying 10,000 people in 2021 and, earlier this year, we have been appointed by LinkedIn as one of the best companies to work for in Spain.

Enabling Spanish businesses and creators

In addition to investing in our communities and creating jobs, we also invest in tools and support for a large number of businesses across the country which use our technology and services to grow their businesses through increased sales within, and beyond, Spain. In 2021, there were more than 12,000 Spanish small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) selling on our stores. About half of these exported their goods all over the world, reaching more than €650 million in international sales. In addition, those selling partners have created more than 30,000 jobs so far. Spanish SMEs sold more than 60 million products in Amazon stores in 2021, 70% more than the previous year.

In 2020, Amazon launched Despega, a program designed with the collaboration of IE University, CEPYME, ICEX and AECOC, to boost the growth and digitization of small businesses across Spain in the wake of the pandemic. More than 13,000 Spanish SMEs and entrepreneurs have benefited from the program in the first year. Amazon is committed to training 50,000 companies by 2025 with the necessary skills to sell globally and lay strong foundations to be successful for years, either with Amazon, alone, or through other online services.

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is also helping Spanish businesses grow. To support the digital transformation of our economy, AWS will open a new infrastructure region in Spain, enabling customers, including SMEs, start-ups, large enterprises or government agencies, to run workloads and store data in Spain and serve its end-users with even lower latency. Located in Aragón, the new AWS Europe (Spain) Region represents an additional €2.5 billion investment and the estimated creation of 1,300 new full-time jobs over the next ten years.

We also continue to strengthen our commitment to Spain’s cultural talent. The company offers a wide range of professional opportunities in the country's entertainment and cultural industries through Amazon Music, Audible, Kindle, Twitch, and Prime Video. We work closely with some of the best storytellers, writers, producers, musicians, and artists, helping them to prosper in the cultural sector and getting their creations to audiences all over the word.

Investments in culture and entertainment are also part of our commitments in Spain. At the end of 2021, Prime Video announced a €1 million donation to support the recovery of the entertainment industry after the pandemic. The donation, managed in coordination with Acción Cultural Española, the Cinema Academy, and the Cinematography and Audiovisual Arts Institute, will focus on supporting diversity and emerging talent.

Investing in sustainability

At Amazon, we have decided to use our size and scale to make a difference for the planet. Amazon is the first signatory of The Climate Pledge which was launched together with the NGO Global Optimism. That means we are committed to becoming net zero carbon across our entire global business by 2040 – a decade ahead of the Paris Agreement’s goal. We are working towards these goals by taking immediate action across our business operations, be it energy usage, transportation, or packaging.

When it comes to investments in sustainability, Amazon has become the largest corporate buyer of renewable energy in Spain, with 15 renewable projects in the country – solar and wind - that will have a combined capacity of more than 1.4 GW. Globally, we have 310 wind and solar projects, with a total renewable energy capacity of more than 15.7 GW, generating 42 gigawatts per hour (GWh). When all projects become fully operational, they will provide renewable energy for our corporate offices, fulfillment centers, and AWS data centers, serving millions of customers around the world. We are on a path to running 100% of our business on renewable energy by 2025 — five years ahead of our original target of 2030.

In 2022, we stopped using plastic bags for products shipped via our own logistics network in Spain and, in 2020, we banned sales on amazon.es of certain single-use plastic products, such as cotton buds and straws, cutlery, plates or drink stirrers, as well as those made of oxo-degradable plastic. We have launched a ‘Climate Pledge Friendly’ label - an easy way to find sustainable products on our store. Currently, there are tens of thousands of items labelled as Climate Pledge Friendly because they possess one or more sustainability certifications.

Total tax contribution in Spain

Amazon is a growing business with a high volume of sales, but, as is the case for retail businesses, operating profits remain relatively low due to price pressure in a very competitive market, intense capital investment, and increasing operating costs (including those from a growing workforce and inflation). Most governments - including the Spanish government - actively encourage companies to make these investments, and they often use the taxation system to do so.

  • In 2021, the total revenues of Amazon’s activities in Spain were over €6 billion.
  • Our investments amounted to €3.7 billion. Last year, we reinvested more than half of the revenues we generated.

  • Our total tax contribution - combining directly incurred and indirect taxes - was over €292 million. This splits into:

    • Our total directly incurred taxes were more than €224 million. Employer taxes accounted for the largest proportion of these. Other direct taxes included corporate income tax, taxes paid for land acquisition or construction, digital service tax, and import duties. 
    • We collected an additional €68 million in indirect taxes as a result of our business in Spain. These are taxes we collect and remit from our customers, employees, and other third parties because of our business activities in Spain. These include VAT and the taxes paid by our employees withheld by Amazon.
    • In addition, we also assisted third-party sellers with the collection and payment of VAT in Spain. We haven’t included those numbers in our indirect tax figure to date since these taxes have been paid by third parties to the Spanish Tax Authority.

Spain is a country of talent and opportunity, and we’re pleased to play a role in fostering that while supporting growth. After more than ten years since our launch in Spain, we are as excited today as on day one to continue working to find the best ways to invest in the people who work for us and the communities we serve.