Amazon launched operations in Luxembourg in 2003. As we celebrate our 20th anniversary, our team looks back at Amazon’s history in the Grand Duchy and ahead to what comes next.
Amazon in Luxembourg: Then and now
Our first permanent offices in Luxembourg were located in the Grund and Clausen areas, at the foot of the city’s scenic fortress, a UNESCO World Heritage Site. “We loved being in such beautiful, historic locations, but we grew so much that our offices could no longer accommodate everyone,” said Alex Goldswain, Global Customer Experience Senior Manager for Amazon Global Real Estate and Facilities (GREF), who oversaw the opening of our first office in Kirchberg in 2012.
That office is one of seven buildings that currently make up our campus in one of the city’s main business districts. Today, Amazon has more than 4,250 permanent employees in Luxembourg, making us the country’s second-largest employer according to STATEC, the national statistics agency. Employees represent more than 100 nationalities and work in a variety of roles at many levels, from product and programme management to software development and engineering. Luxembourg's location in the heart of Europe makes it particularly well-suited as a home for our pan-European logistics and supply chain teams, as well as employees in regional and global roles.
Economic investment
Over the years, Amazon’s hiring and investments have brought thousands of jobs and added billions of euros in economic activity to countries and communities across Europe, including Luxembourg. Between 2010-2022 we invested more than €6.6 billion in Luxembourg, with more than €1.5 billion in 2022 alone, including infrastructure and employee compensation.
Community engagement activities
In addition to official partnerships with organisations such as the Luxembourg Red Cross, we empower employees to volunteer with local schools and community groups, in line with our leadership principle of “Success and Scale Bring Broad Responsibility.” Amazonians in Luxembourg are involved in a wide range of volunteer activities, including:
Engagement with local schools and universities: Recently we have partnered with Lycée Technique de Lallange, Michel Lucius International School, Michel Lucius High School, and Robert Schuman High School for office visits, where students learn more about our culture and ways of working; career day events where employees share information on different fields and offer practical tips for finding a job after high school; and workshops on tech topics including AI algorithms, gamification, and coding. Last September, we announced two collaborations with the University of Luxembourg: A five-year agreement to support thesis research projects at the Luxembourg Centre for Logistics and Supply Chain Management (LCL) of the Faculty of Law, Economics and Finance for students within the Master of Logistics and Supply Chain Management (LSCM) programme, and a collaboration to use AWS processors in high-performance computing (HPC) research.
Cultural integration: Employees from the Luxembourg chapter of Amazon’s Black Employee Network (BEN)—one of our 13 affinity groups—have organised a five-a-side football tournament for refugees in Luxembourg, to support the development of social connections and help refugees integrate into their new communities. Members of our Arabs@Amazon employee group are also supporting refugees in Luxembourg through volunteer events. Both of these activities are being organised in partnership with the Red Cross.
Local beautification initiatives: Dozens of employees from our Global Procurement Office recently donned bright orange T-shirts to collect cigarette butts in the area around our campus, in partnership with local NGO Serve the City. This is one of hundreds of similar events taking place around the world from September 1-30 as part of our Global Month of Volunteering.
Looking toward the future
To celebrate our 20th anniversary, we held an “All-LUX” meeting at LuxExpo The Box in Kirchberg. Marking the occasion, Jorrit Van der Meulen, Vice President, Amazon Stores, said: “We are proud of the business we’ve built here over the past 20 years, and are honoured to call Luxembourg our home in Europe.”
Jorrit, who has been based in Luxembourg for more than half of his 20+ year tenure with Amazon, added: “Luxembourg’s emphasis on innovation, entrepreneurship, diversity, and integration are values that we share, and we are inspired by the way the country has continually reinvented itself over the past century. We look forward to building a bright future together.”
