Amazon Spain turns 10

Amazon Spain turns 10 years old. The company has invested a staggering 6,800 million euros in Spain since it set up a decade ago, with operation “Sunshine”.

Ruth Diaz was involved in launching Amazon into Spain 10 years ago, at a point in time when online shopping was not all that popular.

“At Amazon we always think big, but ten years ago we couldn’t imagine what we’ve achieved”, said Diaz.  

Diaz is now Vice president of Amazon Fashion Europe, and before joining Amazon Spain she had spent 18 years gathering general management experience internationally. She made the decision to opt for Amazon in Spain to join a small team that were doing something new and exciting.

“It was a very nice project. It had a code name that was ‘Sunshine’. We started with a very small team, but very motivated. The beginnings were beautiful and super intense, we were a real startup. E-commerce in Spain had a very low penetration, there was very little on offer and we wanted to do something big. We learned, we enjoyed ourselves and we had great adrenaline peaks with every success, and that hasn’t changed. We feel that everything is still to be done,” Diaz said.

When Amazon started in Spain it only had a small workforce and no head offices either. The company has now grown to be one of 15 companies in Spain that have the most employees. It is expected by the end of the year that Amazon will have a staggering 15,000 employees all on a permanent basis. Amazon now has over 30 centres in Spain and has invested millions of euros over the last 10 years.

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