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Their Clients’ Plans
Of those responding to our 2007 Consultants Survey, 90 percent said their clients expect to open new facilities within one or two years. None reported client plans beyond the three-year range (Chart H). Obviously, consultants are not called in until plans are ready to be set in motion.

Three-quarters of the respondents said their clients only expect to open one facility (Slideshow, Chart I). The consultants also reported that about 30 percent of the planned U.S. projects would be manufacturing operations; 29 percent, warehouse/distribution facilities; 14 percent, headquarters; and 15 percent, back offices or call centers (Chart J). For comparison’s sake, we note that of the planned domestic projects reported by the respondents to our 2007 Corporate Survey, 50 percent will be manufacturing plants; 30 percent, warehouse/distribution operations; only 3 percent will be headquarters facilities; and 4 percent, back offices or call centers. From charts A and J we can conclude that the responding consultants will work on fewer of the domestic manufacturing-type projects planned by our corporate respondents and more of the U.S. headquarters and back-office operations planned by those clients other than the ones responding to our Corporate Survey.

However, the respondents to this year’s Consultants Survey and Corporate Survey do agree somewhat on which areas of the country will garner the largest percentage of planned new facilities. Those responding to our 2007 Consultants Survey said 15 percent of the domestic projects planned by their clients would be located in the South (Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Louisiana, and Mississippi), 13 percent in the South Atlantic (North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, and West Virginia), and 12 percent in the Midwest (Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Wisconsin) (Slideshow, Chart K). The corporate respondents’ percentages for these areas were 14 percent for the South, 14 percent for the Midwest, and 10 percent for the South Atlantic. The respondents to our 2007 Corporate Survey also said a larger percentage of their planned domestic projects (13 percent) would end up in the West (California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington) than the consultants reported as being planned by their clients for the West (only 9 percent of the total projects). And nearly two-thirds of the responding consultants said their clients were choosing to establish domestic facilities in a range of U.S. locations (Slideshow, Chart L).

Those responding to our 2007 Consultants Survey reported that more than a quarter of the foreign location projects being planned by their clients are slated for Canada, 13 percent for Asia, and 11 for Eastern Europe (Slideshow, Chart M). Interestingly, 42 percent of the total foreign projects planned by the respondents to our 2007 Corporate Survey will be located in Asia, and only 7 percent in Canada and 6 percent in Eastern Europe. These discrepant responses are another indication that the responding consultants may not be working for many of those firms represented by the respondents to our 2007 Corporate Survey.