The world’s biggest online retailer could be sending out your Christmas presents from Ipswich this year after it agreed to create hundreds of jobs by building a new distribution centre on the edge of town.

Ipswich Star: Amazon is building a delivery centre on the edge of Ipswich. Picture: PA/AARON CHOWNAmazon is building a delivery centre on the edge of Ipswich. Picture: PA/AARON CHOWN (Image: PA Archive/PA Images)

Amazon is building the centre on the Eastern Gateway Enterprise Park - the site of the former sugar beet factory on Sproughton Road - and hopes to have it up and running by the summer.

The internet giant will create more than 40 permanent jobs at the 8,500 square metre delivery station. The independent delivery companies will hire 200 drivers who will collect parcels from the delivery station and deliver them to Amazon customers in Suffolk - and that number is expected to increase significantly in future years.

The new delivery station will work with 12 independent delivery companies in a bid to provide fast and reliable delivery Amazon customers expect.

Packages will be shipped to the delivery station at Eastern Gateway from larger Amazon centres and loaded on to vehicles to get delivered to customers.

Ipswich Star: David Ellesmere at the former Ipswich Sugar Beat Factory when the borough's purchase was confirmed in 2014. Picture: LUCY TAYLORDavid Ellesmere at the former Ipswich Sugar Beat Factory when the borough's purchase was confirmed in 2014. Picture: LUCY TAYLOR

Kerry-Anne Lawlor, Country Director for Amazon Logistics said: "We are excited to open a delivery station in Ipswich where Amazon's 20+ years of operational expertise, technology advancements and investment in transportation infrastructure is enabling faster delivery for customers than ever before seven days a week."

The former sugar beet site was bought by Ipswich council in 2014 to turn it into a major business park - even though it is just outside the borough boundary.

Council leader David Ellesmere said the arrival of Amazon was good news: "With this the park will be about half full. We have recouped what we paid for it - although we haven't yet broken even because of all the infrastructure we are putting in, but that will come."

He anticipated concerns about the effect that Amazon was having on high street shops: "The fact is people shop online and will continue to shop on line wherever the goods are sent from. This deal means those goods will come from Ipswich and eventually the centre should provide hundreds of good jobs for people."

Mr Ellesmere said Amazon's decision confirmed how well placed the park was for business: "In effect it has its own slip road directly on to the A14 - that's just what business wants."