A Swansea man who first walked into Amazon’s fulfilment centre as a seasonal temp has been put in charge of the whole site.
Chris Bailey, who was born and raised locally and lives 15 minutes from the building, has been named the new site leader at the Amazon warehouse at Crymlyn Burrows.
He joined in 2010 as a seasonal associate while completing a master’s degree in business management, specialising in operations.
After being accepted onto several graduate schemes, he chose Amazon, and the company says he became only the second graduate ever to work at its Swansea site.
From area manager to Swindon and back to Swansea
Since then he has worked through almost every level of the business, Amazon says, moving from area manager to operations manager.
He later joined the transport side as regional operations manager for the West Cluster, overseeing seven sites stretching from Swansea to Swindon and as far north as Redditch.
Amazon credits him with helping shape its strategy for delivery estimate accuracy, meaning how reliably parcels turn up on the date customers are promised. It says mechanisms he brought in are still used across its network today.
He returned to the Swansea site in 2024 and passed his site leader assessment in February.
The 832,000 sq ft Swansea site he now runs
The Swansea fulfilment centre opened in 2007, creating jobs for up to 1,700 people.
Its aisles hold around 4.2 million storage locations, a scale two young interns got to grips with earlier this year.
Amazon says it is one of only three of its UK buildings to handle incoming stock, outgoing orders and customer returns under one roof.
‘Comfortable being uncomfortable’
“I really love this building, and I love what Amazon has given me,” Chris said.
“I’m naturally quite introverted, and Amazon has stretched me and pushed me outside my comfort zone. Early in my career, I realised I had to become comfortable being uncomfortable, because that’s where true growth comes from.”
He added: “By the end of this year, I’ll be completely different to how I started it. That’s the thing that still amazes me about working here.”
His advice to anyone thinking of joining was to “stay open to new opportunities, lean into your strengths, and don’t be afraid to step outside your comfort zone”.
“It’s been a journey, and I’m really proud of what the team here in Swansea continues to achieve,” he said.
His route up through the building mirrors that of area manager Sara Evans, who started there as a stower at 18 and now runs teams on the same floor.
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