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Of those foreign facilities to be opened by the clients of the responding consultants, 40 percent are expected to be manufacturing operations (Slideshow, Chart N). In fact, 48 percent of the responding consultants said they have seen an increase in the number of companies establishing foreign facilities as opposed to domestic ones over the last year, although only 39 percent said these foreign facilities are actually replacing domestic ones (Slideshow, Charts O and P).

While helping their clients to set up foreign facilities, about a fifth of the respondents to our Consultants Survey said they had encountered or foresee encountering legal, regulatory, utility and transportation infrastructure, and social/cultural problems (Slideshow, Chart Q).

Clients’ Perceived Priorities
We also asked those consultants taking our Consultants Survey to rate the same site selection and quality-of-life factors rated by those taking our Corporate Survey as either “very important,” “important,” “minor consideration,” or “of no importance.” We then added up the “very important” and “important” ratings in order to rank the factors (Chart R).

It’s interesting to note that, this year, the same factor is ranked first in importance by those responding to both surveys — highway accessibility. It was rated as either “very important” or “important” by 97.6 percent of the responding consultants. Labor costs, which was ranked second by the Corporate Survey respondents, was ranked third by those responding to the 2007 Consultants Survey, with a 93.8 percent rating. Availability of skilled labor was the second most important factor according to the consultants, receiving a 97.5 percent rating. The Corporate Survey takers ranked availability of skilled labor in fourth place.

The consultants ranked available land as fourth in importance, with a 93.6 percent rating. This factor was in sixth place in the Corporate Survey. Additionally, those responding to our Consultants Survey ranked expedited or “fast-track” permitting fifth, with a 92.4 percent rating. This factor is new to our survey this year, as is availability of buildings, which holds the number 12 spot in the Consultants Survey with an 82.3 percent rating. Consultants are aware that the need for speed to market has shortened project turnaround times for many firms and they need available buildings and shovel-ready sites. In response to a related question about which factors they found to be most deficient for their clients’ recent location or expansion projects, 30 percent of the responding consultants cited pre-qualified sites (Slideshow, Chart V).

With all the concern about high energy costs, we thought those taking our 2007 Consultants Survey would have ranked energy availability and costs higher than ninth place, with an 85.7 percent rating. After all, our Corporate Survey respondents ranked this factor third. Nevertheless, proximity to major markets is in the eighth-place spot, considered “very important” or “important” by 87.4 percent of the responding consultants, a possible indication of the need to keep fuel or transportation costs down.