Location European Headquarters
The company was growing in the US and was now anticipating EU approval. In order to prepare for European commercial launch the company needed to establish itself in Europe with, as a first step, a European Headquarters.
Assignment
This US-based fast-growing life sciences manufacturer, active in the blood therapy area, has ambitious plans to grow in Europe. As one of the first steps to prepare for that, the company acknowledged the need to establish a European Headquarters. In this office the newly recruited European leaders and their staff would be located. The key functions planned to be located in the new location are General EU Management, Medical, Commercial, Supply Chain, Quality and Legal/Regulatory.
Project summary
Our client is a US-based manufacturer of blood therapy solutions. The company was growing in the US and was now anticipating EU approval. In order to prepare for European commercial launch the company needed to establish itself in Europe with, as a first step, a European Headquarters.
Our approach
Our approach for this project was a step-by-step filter-down process:
- During the kick-off phase we created together with the client team a detailed profile of the new European Headquarters: numbers and profiles of the staff, space and other building requirements, growth projections and important location drivers
- Then a longlist of 12 potential European locations was defined and assessed based on critical location factors. The twelve locations were spread across Switzerland, United Kingdom, France, The Netherlands, Germany and Belgium
- Based on the critical location factor assessment a shortlist of the 5 most promising locations was selected for further review
- The shortlist of 5 locations was assessed based on detailed Cost, Quality of the Business Environment, and Risk factors. We gathered factual data and statistics from credible information sources, collected information from national and regional development agencies and also had in-depth interviews with relevant recruitment experts in the 5 regions. Based on this detailed assessment the two most optimal locations were selected for fieldwork visits
- A combined BCI/client team visited the two final locations (in Switzerland and The Netherlands). During the visits multiple office locations per region were visited. Also in-depth discussions with economic development agencies, recruitment experts in the local markets, tax experts and similar companies that already are present in these locations, have been held.
- After the fieldwork visits the analysis was finalized and the final location selected. In this case the company established its European Headquarters in Switzerland
Result
A fully independent recommendation, based on an in-depth fact-based location selection process, was presented to our client’s management. Based on this de location decision was made and implemented.
The fact-based approach of BCI helped us to make decision for our important European Headquarters. We trust that this way we have established ourselves in the location that will accommodate our company to be successful in growing into Europe