[LONDON] Amazon.com Inc will add over 2,500 permanent jobs in Britain this year, taking the US retail giant's UK workforce to nearly 28,000, it said on Wednesday.

The company said the jobs will be in head office, research and development, web services and operations roles.

Apart from nationwide goods deliveries, Amazon's services include video streaming and a digital home assistant known as Alexa.

"We're committed to the UK, we're continuing to invest in the UK," Doug Gurr, Amazon's UK Country Manager, told reporters.

Amazon has invested over 9.3 billion pounds (S$16.6 billion) in its UK operations since 2010, he said, but declined to break down that figure between capital expenditure and operating costs.

The company already announced in January that it would create 400 jobs at a new fulfilment centre in Rugby, central England.

Gurr was unconcerned by Britain's impending exit from the European Union.

"We'll wait and see what happens and we'll adapt as necessary," he said.

He declined to comment on a media report that Amazon had made an unsuccessful informal attempt to buy upmarket British supermarket chain Waitrose late last year.

Amazon has also been linked with a big move on the UK grocery market in the wake of Sainsbury's agreed 7.3 billion pound takeover of Walmart's Asda that would create a combined group larger than current market leader Tesco .

Though Amazon is slowly rolling out the same-day delivery AmazonFresh service it launched in June 2016 its overall share of the UK grocery market remains tiny.

It currently has a wholesale deal with No. 4 UK player Morrisons and last year bought upscale US grocer Whole Foods.

REUTERS