Martin Newton has swapped making bread for demonstrating robots capable of lifting more than 500kg as part of the company’s free public tours.
The tours give visitors an opportunity to see what happens after they place an online order, including how products are picked, packed and dispatched.
With Christmas approaching, Martin is encouraging people to visit the site and discover the technology behind Amazon’s operations.
His journey into the role began after he left secondary school without achieving the qualifications he had hoped for.
He took up a bakery apprenticeship and spent more than a decade in the industry, becoming fully City & Guilds accredited and progressing to within one level of qualifying as a master baker.
In 2012, he developed a multi-seed product range for a major supermarket chain, which he says remains a bestseller.
Martin said:
“It started because we had excess ingredients that we couldn’t do anything with.
“We made something from them, and I thought, actually, this is a good product. We took it through the whole proposal process, it got approved, and it’s become one of their bestsellers.”
Following a major restructure at his employer, Martin began considering a change of career and attended an interview with Amazon seven years ago.
He initially had no intention of accepting a job, but changed his mind after learning about the working arrangements and training opportunities.
He said:
“I wasn’t intending to accept a job with Amazon at all. I went to the interview just to see what they had to say.
“Then I heard about the robots, the guaranteed hours and the four-day working week. And when they told me about Career Choice, I thought, I have to go for this.
“I didn’t have the best education behind me, and here was a company willing to fund it.”
Martin began working in Amazon’s stow department, placing products into storage pods, before progressing into several other positions.
These included instructor, team leader and robotics amnesty responder, before he transferred to the Swindon fulfilment centre.
After securing a promotion, he spent four years working as a trainer and went on to support the launch of around seven Amazon sites across Europe.
His work included helping to establish the company’s first facilities in Ireland and Turkey.
When public tours were introduced at the Swindon site, Martin was chosen to lead visitors around the building and eventually took on the position full-time.
The role has also taken him to the United States, where he attended training in Nashville and visited Seattle to meet colleagues from around the world.
He said:
“It was completely mind-blowing.
“It was the first time I’d ever been to America, and you’re being sent out there by Amazon with everything covered.”
Despite travelling internationally, Martin says welcoming schoolchildren into the Swindon facility is among the most rewarding parts of his job.
The visits allow pupils to see robotics and artificial intelligence being used in a working environment, rather than simply learning about them in classrooms.
He said:
“Schools tell us regularly that it’s a great way to see technologies they’ve only read about in textbooks.
“We have robotics and we use a lot of AI in this building, and they get to see it working live and interacting with the people who work here.”
One of the biggest surprises for visitors is discovering just how much weight the robots inside the fulfilment centre can lift.
Martin said:
“Each robot can lift more than 500 kilos, which is about the same as a small cow.
“That’s the one that gets people. They say, really, that much?”
His career is also set to come full circle in November, when he is due to welcome 50 pupils from his former school to the Swindon site.
Having once struggled to achieve the GCSE results he wanted, he now hopes his experience will help demonstrate the different career opportunities available to young people.
Although he still occasionally enjoys baking, Martin admits he tends not to mention it at work to avoid being asked to make cakes.
Reflecting on his role, he said:
“It’s one of the most precious jobs I’ve ever done.
“You never know who’s going to come through that door, and no two tours are ever the same.”
Amazon offers free public tours of its Swindon fulfilment centre, allowing visitors to see the technology and staff involved in processing online orders.
