Amazon has announced that it is opening a new fulfillment centre in Bolton next year, for which it has already started recruiting 1,200 full-time permanent employees.

The retail giant said that the investment would take the total number of permanent jobs it has created in the North-west of England to more than 3,500. It also represents a vote of confidence in British business, as the country moves towards Brexit.

Amazon said that it had already started recruiting for a range of new roles for the fulfillment centre, including operations managers, engineers, human resources and IT specialists.

The team in Bolton will pick, pack and ship customer items such as books, toys and kitchenware. All permanent staff will earn £8.15 an hour or more after two years of employment. Starting salaries will be £7.65 an hour and above.

The national minimum wage in the UK for people aged 25 and above was set at £7.50 in April 2017. It is due to increase to £9 per hour by 2020, under plans announced by former Chancellor George Osborne.

The group also said that all permanent employees working in the company’s fulfillment centres receive stock grants and are offered a comprehensive benefits package, including private medical insurance, life assurance, income protection, subsidised meals and an employee discount, as well as a company pension plan.

Amazon has been expanding aggressively in the UK. Since 2010, it has invested £6.4bn in the UK. Last year, it announced that it would open fulfillment centres in Daventry, Doncaster, Warrington and Tilbury, creating more than 3,500 new permanent full time jobs.

It also said that it is increasing the size of its UK fulfillment centre network to meet increasing customer demands, expand selection and enable small and medium-sized companies selling on its platform to scale their business.

For years, Amazon has faced repeated accusations that it treats its staff poorly. A 2013 BBC investigation found conditions that an expert concluded could cause “mental and physical illness”. Shifts involved walking up to 11 miles, with employees expected to collect an order every 33 seconds.

A 2015 expose by the New York Times claimed to have found US employees working four days in a row without sleep; a woman with breast cancer being put on “performance-improvement plans” together with another who had just had a stillborn child; staff routinely bursting into tears; continual monitoring and workers encouraged to turn on each other to keep their jobs.

Last year, The Sunday Times alleged that it had spoken to workers who were penalised for taking sick days, and said that some were living in tents near its Dunfermline warehouse to save money commuting to work.

Amazon said at the time that it “provides a safe and positive workplace, with competitive pay and benefits from day one”.