Percentage of respondents providing
following services to their clients:
• Feasibility studies 10%
• Global asset positioning 1%
• Location studies/comparative analyses 27%
• Incentives comparisons/negotiations 24%
• Site selection decision 37%
• Construction 11%
• Real estate transaction 25%
• Other 4%
chart B
Most of the clients who ask the consultants
to perform a location search have:
• Not actively initiated the site selection process
• 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
15%
27%
40%
11%
7%
chart C
In terms of their employment numbers,
companies utilizing consultants’ services are:
• Small (20-99 employees)
• Mid-size (100-499 employees)
• Large (500-999 employees)
• Very large ( 1,000 or more employees)
26%
42%
13%
20%
chart D
Has the downturn in the U.S. economy
affected your clients’ facility plans?
• No — Still plan to open new facilities 25%
• No — Still plan to increase hiring 6%
• Yes — New facility plans put on hold 58%
• Yes — Closing/consolidating facilities 34%
• Yes — Reducing current employment 25%
• Yes — Hiring plans deferred 28%
• Yes — Deferring capital spending 45%
• Yes — Seeking new sources of funding/financing 37%
chart E
In line with their client representation as illustrated
in Chart A, 29 percent of the new domestic facilities
planned by the consultants’ clients will house warehouse/distribution operations, with just 27 percent
planned as manufacturing facilities (Chart J).
Surprisingly, just 26 percent of the projects the
responding consultants’ clients have slated for offshore locations will go to Asia (down from 36 percent
reported by the consultants last year, and compared
to 39 percent of the projects slated for Asia by the
2009 Corporate Survey respondents). However, the
consultants’ clients have a heightened interest in
Canada (up from 10 percent of the projects reported
by the consultants in 2008 to 16 percent of the
planned new foreign facilities this year). This is also a
much better showing than the mere 4 percent of the
projects the 2009 Corporate Survey respondents have
slated for Canada. And Western Europe — a favorite
among the 2009 Corporate Survey respondents, who
said they were planning 14 percent of their new foreign facilities for this region of the world — will
receive only 9 percent of the responding consultants’
clients’ new facilities (Chart K).
The consultants’ clients show more diversity in
their plans for Asia than do the respondents to our
Corporate Survey. Of those facilities that the consultants reported are planned for Asia, just 34 percent will
go to China and 28 percent to India (Chart L), with the
rest slated for other Asian nations. And nearly a third
of the planned foreign facilities will be manufacturing
operations, with about a fifth expected to be used for
distribution/warehouse purposes (Chart M).
Of note, the respondents to our 2009 Consultants
Survey have seen a sizable amount of offshoring and
onshoring activity. More than a quarter of the
responding consultants said they have seen an
increase in the number of companies establishing foreign facilities as opposed to domestic ones; a similar
percentage said they have seen clients relocating offshore facilities back to the United States (Chart N),
creating a sort of “wash” effect.
Many of the responding consultants cite problems
encountered by their clients operating offshore,
including trouble finding qualified and/or English-
speaking labor (cited by 22 percent of the respon-
