Location strategy and Location & site selection

One of your key strategic decisions is selecting the right location for your operations. You are making new investments in land, buildings, equipment and talent for the long term. As the global business environment in which you need to make a location decision is becoming more uncertain every day, it is crucial to make a robust and future proof selection of a location.

News
Søstrene Grene selects Venlo, The Netherlands as location for their new distribution center

Danish home decoration retailer Søstrene Grene has selected Venlo, the logistics hotspot location in The Netherlands, as the location for their new distribution center of 45.000 sqm

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Coping with Rising Trade Tariffs

Trade restrictions are on the rise all over the world. President Trump will probably give a push to higher import tariffs, provoking retaliation measures of other trading blocs like Europe and Japan.

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Our team of experts has extensive experience in this field, with a deep understanding of global markets and local situations. 

We provide you with comprehensive location analyses and data and experience driven recommendations to help you identify the best locations for your business. We do this around the globe, including EMEA, North America and LATAM, China and Asia-Pacific.

Our vision on location strategy and location & site selection

In the current global environment, uncertainty is a given. Geopolitical turmoil, technological developments, labor market challenges, tax climate changes to name a few, are having a huge impact on cost effectiveness, quality of the business environment and the risk profile of your current locations. We support you with a thorough fact-based location strategy and site selection analytics, no matter whether your project has a global scope or is focused on EMEA, North America, LATAM, China or Asia-Pacific.

We can support in two phases of your location selection process: 

Scenario analysis

In this strategic phase we support you with defining and analyzing meaningful location scenarios in order to answer questions such as: can we expand at our current locations or should be set up a new location? How many new locations do we need? In what geographical area should we start selecting a new location and site?  In the scenario definition and analyses we take amongst others the following factors into account:

  • Your company’s overall business strategy
  • Future business projections
  • External factors (e.g. economy, geopolitical, legal and regulatory, climate, technology)

Based on a well-based quantitative and qualitative comparison of the different location scenarios the preferred scenario is selected and the next steps for your company are defined. These next steps may include a detailed location & site selection process.

Location & Site Selection

In order to select the optimal location for your company’s new manufacturing site, distribution center, headquarters or support office, we execute a step-wise filtering process. The filtering from longlist to shortlist and final optimal location is very much fact-based and focuses on comparing locations from a Cost, Quality of the Business Environment and Risk perspective.

Once the shortlist of candidate locations is defined we start the fieldwork activities: conducting fieldwork visits to the top locations in order to validate and enrich all desk research findings with actual insights from the field. In addition to our location strategy and site selection projects we also help companies in:

  • detailed labor market analyses, applying our proven IDEAL methodology (In-Depth Assessment of Labor Markets) to answer your questions regarding the feasibility of recruiting and retaining your staff in current and / or new locations.
  • detailed location risk assessments, using our in-house developed IRAM risk framework (Integral Risk Assessment Method), to assess the risk level of your company’s current (and potential future) locations on 46 different location risk elements.

If you want to know more about the specifics of our location selection approach and experience for manufacturing plants, distribution centers and / or headquarters and support centers, click below for more options.

Media
Video
Geopolitical Issues Facing Manufacturers Today

04 March 2025

Geopolitical Issues Facing Manufacturers Today
Learn from René Buck what geopolitical issues internationally active manufacturers face every day
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Presentation
How to De-Risk Your Global Value Chain in an Uncertain, Geopolitically Risky and Trade Restricting World

07 March 2025

How to De-Risk Your Global Value Chain in an Uncertain, Geopolitically Risky and Trade Restricting World
With President Trump taking office on January 20th, 2025 one can expect that global trade barriers will rise...
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Presentation
Where are the Best Semicon Manufacturing Opportunities in the US and Europe?

12 March 2025

Where are the Best Semicon Manufacturing Opportunities in the US and Europe?
The semicon value chain is a highly diverse global industry, with for many companies the same challenge: what is the business case for regionalized production (production is the US for the North American market; Europe for Europe; etc.) and what is the best location in the US or Europe to set-up a new manufacturing plant, assembly operations or ...
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Presentation
Expanding your manufacturing and distribution network in India: the next biggest manufacturing destination and largest consumer market?

12 March 2025

Expanding your manufacturing and distribution network in India: the next biggest manufacturing destination and largest consumer market?
India is one of the highest economic growth regions of the world the next years. But how to organize your manufacturing & distribution set-up to take advantage of this large market from a manufacturing and distribution perspective?
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Presentation
Southeast Asia: the next manufacturing powerhouse ?

12 March 2025

Southeast Asia: the next manufacturing powerhouse ?
Southeast Asia is the highest economic growth regions of the world the next years. But how to organize your manufacturing & distribution set-up to take advantage of this large market from a manufacturing and distribution perspective?
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