Workers at a huge Amazon distribution centre in Bolton are working hard to ensure Black Friday and Christmas goes as smoothly as ever.

The Bolton News visited earlier this week to see how they were coping with increased demands and coronavirus restrictions.

The MAN3 Amazon distribution centre at Logistics North in Over Hulton contains over 7.24 kilometres of conveyor belt and employs over 2,500 workers to deliver to people across the country at speed.

Nicolas Verdon, Site Leader at Amazon Bolton, has had to oversee a difficult period for the site with the coronavirus outbreak changing much of the way they work.

However, he guarantees they are as prepared as ever to cope with Black Friday and Christmas sales.

The site has hired nearly 1,500 people to work in seasonal roles to help with expected increased demand and many measures have been put in place to ensure work is done safely.

Temperature checks, one-way systems across the expansive warehouse, individual working stations with social distancing for employees, and a Covid testing centre are all ways the site stays efficient during the busies periods.

Over 500 people are working in the site at any one time, from people taking stock from the trucks to engineers making sure the robots keep running, and of course boxing up the huge array of items to be delivered across the UK.

Although many would think that the demands of Black Friday and Christmas would lead to a chaotic site, the systems and technology in place make sure this isn’t the case for the Bolton centre.

Mr Verdon said: “The building can only work a certain pace.

“It doesn’t matter how many orders you have the machines still go at the same pace, we just need more people to be doing more jobs and processes at busier times which isn’t a problem.”

The site has over 2,000 ‘pods’ which are shelves that move around on their own with hundreds of random items on them waiting to be delivered.

Once they are taken from these pods they are moved onto the conveyor belt to be boxed, labelled, and sent on their way.

All the most complicated tasks are covered by the very advanced technology which tracks each individual items journey through the centre.

Once the item is "picked" from the pod shelves it arrives at the packers putting the newly ordered items into boxes.

Mark (pictured) who was packing boxes at the time, said: "It tells me everything I need to do, I scan an item and it tells me what box I need to use, what type of tape to use, I don't even know who the customer is at this point.

"Everything is so intertwined but also completely separate, I do my one job but there are many happening before and after me.

"We've all just got to keep working at our own pace and everything gets done."

Nicolas added: "The system and technology knows everything, it knows where and when each item needs to go and where it is at all times.

"Even I don't really know how it all works, it keeps everything quite calm and collected."

As well as this keeping the process of ordering and delivering items as smooth as possible for customers, the safety of staff during the coronavirus has been of great importance to Nicolas.

The site just last month created its own in-house Covid-19 testing centre for all staff, for which they are particularly proud of.

It is voluntarily available for all staff whenever they feel they need it and has been a very good addition according to Nicolas.

He said: "Not everyone came to use it straight away but staff are coming to use it quite regularly now which is great.

"It helps to create a much safer feeling environment so people feel safe about coming in to work.

"This, put together with lots of hand sanitiser stations and regular cleaning of work surfaces, overall makes for a much cleaner work place which can only be positive."

Overall Nicolas said that despite the challenges faced by the coronavirus and with their busiest periods coming up, work was running as smoothly as ever.

He said: "We already have the processes in place to deal with Black Friday and Christmas and contingencies just in case.

"We've created well over 1,000 jobs to deal with this and have changed over 150 process, from one way systems to hand sanitiser stations to deal with the changes.

"We've adapted to these challenges and are now just fine tuning so everyone knows what they need to do.

"Christmas and Black Friday is planned for the whole year, the technology can only work at a certain speed so it's just about getting people in the right places to get everything done at speed, it's very calm.

"We've hired over 1,500 seasonal workers for this but nearly 80 percent tend to become full-time.

"It's down to the staff and the technology that everything works so smoothly, we often have people visit during our busiest periods and say 'surely it can't be this calm and controlled', but it is. As long as people do their role everything is fine.

"Every day is the same, the technology doesn't go any quicker when we're busier, there will just be more people.

"We just make little changes here and there but it makes things so much safer and faster overall."

Commenting on the Boltonian nature of the site Nicolas added: "The building reflects the customers who are ordering from us.

"It's much better for us and the community that most of our staff are from Bolton, nearly 50 per cent of our products here are small, local businesses selling through Amazon.

"They send their products to us and it's distributed and stored through us as we have the resources that most small businesses don't have.

"If we can help businesses too, either by showing them how to implement safety measures when opening up again or by helping them sell their product then that can only be a good thing.

"It's the small things that can sometimes make such a big difference."