Survey (63 percent) are working for smaller companies in
terms of employment numbers (fewer than 500 employ-
ees). More than half have worked with both investor-
owned and privately held firms (Charts D and E).
Do Their Clients Have New Facilities Plans?
Once again I must note that this survey was conducted
in late summer 2008; therefore, the responses might not
reflect the events that took place during the year’s final
quarter. Nonetheless, the respondents to our 2008
Chart B
Percentage of respondents providing following services to their clients:
• Location studies 37%
• Incentives negotiations 31%
• Site selection decision 52%
• Construction 8%
• Other 8%
Chart C
When performing a location search, the percentage of respondents
who find that their clients have:
• Already gathered preliminary data
• Already narrowed down the geographic
area in which they wish to locate
• Already chosen several “finalist”
communities
• Expect the consultant to narrow
or make the location decision for them
22%
47%
8%
25%
Chart D
In terms of employment numbers, those companies utilizing
the consultants’ services are generally:
• Small (20-99 employees) 28%
• Mid-size (100-499 employees) 35%
• Large (500-999 employees) 20%
• Very large 24%
( 1,000 or more employees)
asked if the downturn in the U.S. economy had affected
their clients’ facility plans: 50 percent of the responding
consultants said their clients’ new facility plans had been
put on hold, with 28 percent saying their clients were
closing/consolidating facilities. However, 47 percent of the
responding consultants said their clients still planned to
open new facilities (Chart F).
Of those respondents who claimed their clients expect-
ed to open new facilities, a third said they planned to do
so within one year, and more than half said their clients
had two-year new facility plans (Chart G). Only 11 per-
cent said their clients had longer-range new facility plans
(compared to the 20 percent of the Corporate Survey
respondents with plans three or more years out). This
might be an indication of the fact that the consultants’
services are not utilized until their clients’ plans are more
firmly in place.
Nearly two-thirds of the respondents to our 2008
Consultants Survey said their clients who have new
facility plans expect to open only one new facility. Just
13 percent said their clients had plans for three or more
new facilities (Chart H). Interestingly, 28 percent of the
Corporate Survey respondents with new facility plans
expect to open three or more new facilities within the
next five years.
Whereas nearly half of the 2008 Corporate Survey
respondents’ new facilities are planned as manufacturing
establishments, only 27 percent of the consultants’ clients’
new facilities are expected to house manufacturing opera-
tions (Chart I). Nearly half (47 percent) of the responding
consultants’ clients’ new facilities are expected to be head-
quarters, R&D, back office/call center, and other types of
facilities. This is nearly double the percentage of these
