PDF: 21st Annual Corporate Survey Complete Results - Area ...

mid-size or large in terms of employment. More than 40
percent employ 100–499 people at all facilities, 14 percent
have 500–999 employees, and more than a quarter
employ 1,000 or more (Figure 3).
FIGURE 6
Primary reasons for decreasing number of facilities:
Consolidation of existing operations — 63%
Decrease in product sales — 38%
Need to lower operating/labor costs — 75%
Outdated facility — 38%
Other — 13%
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80
FIGURE 7
Primary role in company’s location decisions:
FIGURE 8
Title of respondents:
Final decision — 45%
Preliminary decision — 29%
Information gathering — 21%
Not involved — 5%
Chairman, President, Partner, CEO,
or Owner — 41%
V.P., Treasurer, Secretary, or
Other Corporate Officer — 32%
Real Estate Mgr./Dir.; Facility Mgr./Dir.;
Dev. Mgr./Dir.; V.P. Real Estate — 16%
Corporate Manager — 7%
Other — 4%
There has been a decline in the number of respondent
firms increasing their number of facilities. This year,
25 percent said they had increased their number of
facilities over the past 12 months, as compared with 29
percent citing an increase in facilities in the 2004 and
2005 surveys. However, only 10 percent of this year’s
respondents reported a decrease in their number of
facilities over the past 12 months — fewer than the 13
percent in 2005 and 17 percent in 2004 making such a
claim (Figure 4).
Nearly three-quarters of the respondents reporting
an increase in their number of facilities said it was due to
increased sales/production. More than half said they
were serving new markets, and nearly half had new
product lines (Figure 5).
Of those who said they had decreased their number
of facilities, nearly two thirds said this was in response to
a consolidation of existing operations. Importantly, a full
three quarters said they needed to lower operating and
labor costs (Figure 6).
Forty-five percent of the respondents to our 2006
Corporate Survey are involved in their companies’ final
location decision. And another 50 percent are either
involved in the preliminary location decision or information
gathering (Figure 7). These respondents are at high
levels within their firms: 41 percent are the chairpersons,
CEOs, or owners; and a third are corporate officers (Figure
8). Knowing the respondents’ level of involvement in
the site selection process makes their facilities projections
for the coming years — which follow below —
quite credible.