Member Article

South Yorkshire rates high for attracting foreign investment

South Yorkshire has come out on top of other parts of the region as one of England’s most attractive areas for foreign investment according to a report by Ernst & Young.

The 2013 European attractiveness survey highlighted that South Yorkshire secured nine Foreign Direct Investment projects (FDI’s) against the six secured in West Yorkshire during 2012, with North Yorkshire securing four FDI’s and two going to Humberside.

Manufacturing companies provided the largest share of Yorkshire’s overall investment projects at ten, with eight finance and business service companies putting money into the region, two investments for retail and hospitality and one transport and communications project.

Tim Bottrill, partner at the Sheffield office of Knight Frank, said: “The Ernst & Young European attractiveness survey offers a great insight into what makes South Yorkshire such an appealing destination for foreign investment.

“Principally, what this part of Yorkshire offers is exactly the kind of commercial infrastructure which is attractive to large scale investment and it is no surprise that manufacturing is cited as Yorkshire’s largest sector for FDI initiatives.

“One of our most recent lettings at Thorncliffe Distribution Centre for example is to Zapp GB Ltd, a global metals stockist, which required a showroom scale facility.

“The company chose South Yorkshire as the best location, with the unit offering close proximity to key suppliers and manufacturers of niche products.”

The survey also showed that manufacturing was the largest driver of jobs growth Europe wide and accounts for more than 25 per cent of all investment projects across Europe.

US companies remain the biggest source of FDI in Europe, providing 27.5 per cent of inward investment projects in 2012.

Together, FDI projects from European countries and the US accounted for more than 80 per cent of FDI flows into the region. The share of FDI projects from Brazil, India and China remained relatively low, at just 5.6 per cent.

The survey indicates that 21 FDI projects for Yorkshire created 380 jobs for the region in 2012.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mark Lane .