Consultants Site Guide 2010

ices of the responding consultants are generally small
to mid-size (fewer than 500 employees), as reported
by 68 percent of the Consultants Survey respondents
(Chart D).

Not surprisingly, more than half of the respondents to our 6th Annual Survey of Consultants said the downturn in the U.S. economy had caused their clients to put new facility plans on hold, and nearly half said their clients were deferring capital spending. About a third of the respondents also said their clients were closing/consolidating facilities (Chart E). These percentages are all greater than those reported in the responses to our 2009 Corporate Survey. Conversely, whereas only 6 percent of the responding consultants said their clients still plan to increase hiring, 22 percent of the respondents to the Corporate Survey said they still plan to increase hiring. Nevertheless, 46 percent of the respondents to our 2009 Consultants Survey think the economy will improve significantly in 2010 (Chart F), about the same percentage of corporate executives who think it will do so.

CLIENTS’ FACILITIES PLANS

While only 34 percent of the respondents to our 2009 Corporate Survey said they plan to open new facilities within one to two years, three quarters of those responding to the Consultants Survey said their clients expect to open new facilities in one to two years (Chart G). This is another indication that the corporate executives who do use consultants do not engage them until they are further along in the location process. Additionally, this is still far fewer than the 88 percent of the respondents to our 2008 Consultants Survey who said their clients had similar one- to two-year new facility plans.

Further reflecting the economic downturn, only 26 percent of the responding consultants said their clients plan to open more than one new facility — down from 36 percent last year (Chart H). By comparison, 44 percent of the Corporate Survey respondents said they have plans for more than one new facility.

Many of the projects the 2009 Consultants Survey respondents’ clients are working on are slated for the South ( 16 percent of the projects are expected to go to Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi) and the Midwest ( 14 percent for Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin). It should be noted that only 10 percent of the projects reported by the Corporate Survey respondents were slated for the South. The Southwest (Arizona, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas) is expected to garner 13 percent of their clients’ new facilities, and the South Atlantic (North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia) will get some 12 percent of the projects (Chart I).