Amazon will also test employees for new variants of Covid
Amazon (NASDAQ:AMZN) could overtake Tesco to become the UK’s largest retailer by 2025, according to research from Edge by Ascential.
Amazon, having opened its first Amazon Fresh store in the UK earlier this year, is expected to make £77.1bn of sales in Britain in the next four years.
Amazon’s projected figure would outdo Tesco’s estimated sales of £76.1bn.
Last year the American technology giant’s sales were half that of Tesco at £36.3bn.
The research sees Amazon increasing its share of beauty and clothing markets, while continuing to grow its digital sales.
Amazon also announced its intention to test its front-line staff in the UK for coronavirus in an effort to combat the emergence of new variants.
The retail giant opened testing labs in Britain and America to provide voluntary testing for staff.
Thanks to its effective vaccine roll-out, the UK is close to reopening its economy fully after long periods of lockdowns. However the Delta variant, first identified in India, has spread, including in areas where Amazon operates.
Luke Meredith, director of the Amazon Diagnostic Laboratory in Britain, has not ruled out making its testing programme available to the British public in the coming months.
“It’s very important that we acknowledge the fact that variants can transmit in different ways, they have different responses to vaccines, they may have different impacts on people’s health,” he told Reuters. “This is a learning phase.”
“I don’t think we can rule anything out at this point in time, that’s a decision that will have to be made, but for now we just want to focus on our staff,” Meredith added.