Business Attraction in the Age of COVID

COVID has forced re-evaluation of everyone’s plans and strategies for the future.  I follow site selectors for insights into business relocations.  The good news is that North American reshoring is predicted to increase.  Surveys from multiple sources are pointing to the same trends which I will share with you below.

• About half of all location searches have continued and half have slowed during the COVID crisis, but all are expecting searches to ramp up again in Quarters 3 and 4.
  
• 3 long term impacts of COVID will be:
  1. A pivot to more virtual site assessments and visits, as in person visits will decline
  2. An eventual uptick in reshoring projects
  3. Businesses will look for “low cost leader” communities
• The 3 industries most likely to reshore are predicted to be:
  1. Non-auto manufacturing
  2. Data Centers, Telecommunications, and Finance
  3. Agriculture, Food & Beverage Services
• The best ways a region can prepare for the onshoring will be to:
  1. Monitor and communicate any closings and downsizings in the region.
  2. Build our virtual toolkits and site visits.
  3. Incentive development and restructuring for business attraction in the industries we seek.
• Information we’ll be looking to capture and share will include:
  1. Information on local market conditions including any announcements and closures
  2. New approaches to support local employers
  3. Updates on incentives
  4. Information on sites, buildings and infrastructure
  5. Training and reskilling of the existing labor force

Please be sure to keep us informed about any and all of the above and don’t hesitate to reach out with questions and/or ideas for collaboration.  We have a lot of ground to cover to prepare and will look forward to working with you to put the Greater Peoria Region’s best foot forward.

Questions or comments? Contact Lenora.

Lenora Fisher
Director of Business Attraction
E: lfisher@greaterpeoriaedc.org
T: 309.253.6010