Amazon has appointed a new country manager for the UK, and its Prime Now service is available in postcodes around Portsmouth.

The current country manager for China, Doug Gurr has been named as Amazon UK’s new head. He will take up the new role in May and replaces Chris North. Gurr first joined Amazon in the UK in 2011 as VP of the Hardlines Division and has been working in China for the last two years.

Gurr said of his new role, “I’m delighted to be returning to Amazon in the UK to lead our continued investment in Britain and innovation on behalf of customers, small businesses, authors and other content creators.”

Prior to working at Amazon, Gurr used to be a senior executive at Asda and before that was CEO of Blueheath Holdings. He founded the company and saw it through to its listing on the London AIM market.

In other Amazon news, it has extended the range of its Prime Now offering. Selected postcodes in Portsmouth will be able to get within the hour deliveries for £6.99 or free delivery within a choice of two hour time windows between 0800 – midnight, seven days a week.

Additionally, customers in Southampton, Winchester, Havant and Eastleigh can have Prime Now delivered in two our same day delivery windows.

“Prime Now is our fastest delivery option ever and from today Prime customers in Portsmouth can get the items they need quickly delivered right to the door in under an hour,” said Jason Weston, director of Amazon’s Prime Now service in the UK.

Prime Now is being rapidly rolled out across the urban centres of the UK. It started in London in June last year and has since expanded to Birmingham, Newcastle, Manchester, Leeds and now Portsmouth. Watch this space for further expansions of the service in the coming weeks and months.