From the Arctic to the Amazon: a Leeds polyglot expanding Bezos’ UK empire

When you’ve fended off a polar bear attack in sub-zero conditions on a remote Arctic glacier, selling a football stadium’s worth of toasters in one day must be child’s play.

Such is the lot of Doug Gurr, Amazon’s UK chief, who’s preparing for next week’s Black Friday sales avalanche.

It’s ten years since the adventuring retail veteran came face to face with a creature “like a Ford Transit with teeth”.

After a gruelling descent from Greenland’s highest peak, Gunnbjornsfeld, the Yorkshireman was locked in a late-night Trivial Pursuit battle with his wife, Lucy, when the bear ripped through their camp.

Hours of frantically fired flares and terrified clattering kept it at bay until dawn. “It was a very long night, clanging shovels and ice picks. When the white out cleared we saw our tent was shredded, I still have the sleeping bag with a bite out of it!”

Life appears more tranquil when we meet high-up in Amazon’s new Shoreditch base, which will eventually house 5000 staff, including its huge video team.

The offices aren't overly flashy. There's the standard-issue tech table tennis table, a mindfulness room and even fridge-like phone booths, but it has the workman-like hum of a business known for its frugality.

We can’t see the street below as the blinds are automated and playing up (they’re not run with Amazon’s Orwellian Alexa personal assistant) - “we’re having a few teething problems,” smiles Gurr as we begin his first interview since taking charge in July 2016.

He’s dressed in a casual black-and-red cheque shirt, dark jacket and blue chinos, with the considered air of a university professor, rather than hard-nosed retailer or tech trailblazer.

High Street retailers keen to protect their margins haven’t been as keen on Black Friday as Amazon, which has led the US marketing juggernaut’s rise on these shores .

“We love Black Friday, I know there’s a mixed debate. Customers were telling us that it was really annoying that stuff was cheaper after Christmas than before,” he explains. Does Amazon make money from it? “It’s about… we are going to ship these products to customers, we’re just ensuring they get these great prices before Christmas than after Christmas,” he sidesteps.

The way Black Friday has ripped up the Christmas trading landscape is analogous to founder Jeff Bezos’ corporate revolution.

From his Seattle garage the former computer scientist has created a drones-to-movies empire which has birthed global brands (Kindle, Prime, Alexa), new terms (showrooming, one-click), and proved the bane of every office postie worldwide in just 22 years.

Bezos is the world’s richest man with his transformed bookseller now worth more than $500 billion. (“He’s an extraordinary individual,” remarks Gurr.)

Gurr’s piece in this gargantuan jigsaw is to knit together its three main products – shopping and entertainment; devices and business services (like cloud computing) – in the UK.

It’s the latter he’s keen to discuss. How Amazon is supporting small businesses from Buckinghamshire to Dumfries with everything from analysing data to converting how their products are listed to help exports to China.

“If you have a laptop, a great idea and product you can live anywhere and sell around the world,” he says, enthusing about a “fitbit for cows” business which helps farmers rotate their herd using Amazon’s Web Services arm’s analytics.

Similarly, the tech giant is throwing its marketing weight behind marketplace sellers this Black Friday.

But won’t this image, of Amazon as the helping hand of SMEs, stick in the craw of those on High Streets that have been devastated by its dominance? “I think there’s been a perception that that’s the case but I genuinely don’t think that’s the reality.”

He points out Amazon’s self-publishing business has helped authors readers by bypassing the industry. “Fundamentally the democratisation, the levelling of the playing field has to be a force for good.”

It’s not the only issue which has put Amazon in the crosshairs: its warehouse conditions are periodically questioned while its tax affairs are much discussed.

Just last month, the EU ordered Amazon to pay out nearly $300 million over “illegal tax benefits” from Luxembourg between 2006 and 2014, where’s it is based in Europe, between.

Its UK services arm is now taxed here – as part of a sea change across Europe which began in 2015 – but HMRC’s take remains relatively tiny due to its slim margins and profits.

“If we are talking about corporation tax it’s levied on profits, not on sales. The reason some people think the tax we pay looks low relative to the turnover is that we don’t make that much profit,” says Gurr.

“The reason we do that is that we operate in a highly competitive set of marketplaces.

The main reason we don’t make as much profit is that we are investing super heavily. In the UK we have created 5000 new jobs, putting investment in Alexa, drones… when the profits are low, the tax will be low, that’s really all there is to it.”

“The main reason we don’t make as much profit is that we are investing super heavily,” he says. “When the profits are low, the tax will be low, that’s really all there is to it… On the corporate reputation, we absolutely want to be seen as a good corporate citizen.”

Does he go to Luxembourg? “Occasionally. I go to Seattle far more frequently.”

Back here, there’s plenty on the to-do list from launching the next series of The Grand Tour to handling a backlash against increased delivery charges.

One of Gurr’s key roles is to champion its Prime service. Its rumoured $250 million bet on getting Clarkson’s new vehicle exclusively for its members was a significant moment for the loyalty scheme, now in its 10^th years.

“We try and offer a programme with physical delivery benefits, content and things like Prime Reading, Pantry, Prime Now,” he says.

Prime is also at the heart of the summer’s shock £10.7 billion deal for Whole Foods. The deal has kept Gurr busy, fitting lockers in stores, cutting prices and getting its posh products on to online grocery arm Amazon Fresh.

Amazon has also shut two Whole Foods shops, leaving just seven, all in London. His vision for it is a “combination of improving the store experience and taking the product and making it available to more people”.

Amazon’s pitching in at the premium end of the market – also inking a deal with ‘Waitrose of the north’ Booths – has surprised many, TCC Global analyst Bryan Roberts says the Whole Foods deal is less significant in the UK.

“Seven yuppie-ish stores in London doesn’t really add much. The high end, organic produce that is not already offered by its deal with Morrisons will fill a nice gap.

The ace up Amazon’s sleeve is Prime – you see in the US that customers feel they want to make the most of their subscription, so the more products offered, the more tempting it is.” Who should be most worried: Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Ocado? “We will wait and see,” says Gurr.

The globe-trotting suits this personable polyglot. Born in Leeds to Kiwi parents, his early childhood was spent visiting Kenya’s lions and cheetahs while his father ran the University of Nairobi’s English department.

His own stint in academia was spent leisurely teaching maths and computing in Denmark before a string of relatively lowly civil service jobs in John Major’s government.

Six years with consultancy and corporate finishing school McKinsey gave him the desire to start a business. Thus he created Blueheath, formed in the last days of the dotcom bubble, which allowed corner shops and petrol stations to wholesale online, eventually floating it on AIM.

“It was fabulous. I learnt so much, some of which I wish I hadn’t, learning on the fly, everything breaks at that sort of pace. When business growth is outgrowing your organisational capability that spells pain on a daily basis.”

His grocery stripes earned, he went on to work for Walmart’s Asda under Andy Bond, before switching to another US paymaster in Amazon, in 2011.

Two years running its Chinese arm proved illuminating: “I went partly because I thought it was hard not to understand the next couple of decades without an understanding of China, its mix of entrepreneurial energy and what tech can do to transform an economy.”

He rapidly switches into Mandarin to explain he loves the language but admits his first presentation, to 1500 people, was a bit ropey – “I honestly think my language was so bad that I don’t think anybody understood a single word I said. But they like the fact that I tried.” Back in the UK, he spends his time between the family home Cragg Vale in west Yorkshire and London.

The “risk dial” has been turned down on his escapades, largely to running, now he has two young kids – “I’ve stupidly signed up for a race in January. 108 miles, mostly in the dark, non-stop across half the Pennine Way,” he groans.

Bond, now boss of Poundland, describes Gurr as “probably the brightest guy I’ve worked with and a very good team player. Perfect for Amazon and well set for the future leadership challenges in retail”.

When might that next challenge occur? “I’m super happy doing what I do. I’m in a genuinely privileged position. The opportunities to see what tech can do, particularly empowering small businesses can do is inspiring.”

Like most in tech, Brexit looms large. Has it made it harder to add to the company’s troop of international staff? “We’ve continued to see lots and lots of applications for every role we have open… so far we’ve been very fortunate,” he says, curtly.

“I think it’s been really good that both the UK and the commission have made the status of EU citizens an early priority,” he adds.

As for Black Friday, Gurr says his job is “by and large to get out of the way, and let the teams do their jobs”. At least he’ll have time to do the shopping.