London, Paris and Frankfurt remain
Europe's favourite business cities
A report by Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker

24 May 2004: London and Paris are by a long margin Europe's two top cities to locate a business, with Frankfurt in third place. The Spanish cities of Barcelona and Madrid are rising up the ranking to challenge the likes of Amsterdam and Brussels. In the 2005 edition of European Cities Monitor (ECM) Barcelona has overtaken Amsterdam to break into the top five, while Madrid closes up to form a leading group of seven cities.

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The European Cities Monitor is published annually by property consultant Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker.

This is the first time that the top five of the ECM ranking has changed since the survey was first carried out in 1990. The survey is based on interviews with senior managers and board directors of 500 of Europe's top companies. It looks at issues regarded as important by companies when deciding where to locate, and then compares the performance of 30 of Europe's leading business cities on each issue.

One of the survey's authors said that Barcelona and Madrid had both energetically carried out strategic improvements to their cities over the past ten years - from updating their transport infrastructure to the education of the local workforce. In turn, this hasd raised the profile of these two leading cities as business centres.

Barcelona is also the city perceived as doing the most in Europe to improve itself as a business location, followed by Prague and Madrid.

The survey adds that Prague, Madrid and Barcelona, together with Berlin, had risen faster up the ranking since ECM was first launched than any of the other locations. This goes to support the view that the more a city is perceived to promote itself, the more it will be perceived as a good business location."

In a new question for this year's edition of ECM, two-thirds of European companies interviewed said that the holding of a major sporting or cultural event would not influence whether they located in that city in the future, but that the Olympic Summer Games was the event that would have the best impact on a city.

Regarding London's hosting of the 2012 Olympic Summer Games, a survey spokesman said: "If the appropriate strategic infrastructural changes are made, London will be able to build on its position not only as Europe's No 1 business location, but also as a global location for business."

The overall city ranking of ECM is compiled from individual city scorings on 12 different location-oriented factors. The interviewees were asked to rank the importance of each factor. They chose 'easy access to markets' as the most important factor. Elaine says: "Communication and transport factors continue to be very important, as well as the availability of qualified staff. Cost factors are ranked behind these, with quality of life issues rated as the least important."

Looking at the other sections of the survey:
Company expansion: Warsaw remains the city that can expect the biggest influx of international companies, with more than eight per cent of respondents saying they expect to locate in the Polish capital over the next five years. In second place comes Prague, followed by Moscow and Budapest in joint third.

Greatest impact on business: Twenty five per cent of interviewees say that the growth of India/China as markets for their company is the factor that will have the greatest impact on their business over the next ten years. 'Performance of Euro economies' comes second, followed by 'Competition from Asia' and the 'Performance of the US economy' in joint third.

Familiarity with other European cities: Out of an additional 23 cities, Valencia comes top followed by Bucharest, and then Birmingham.

How current business locations can be improved: The three top issues are transport links with other cities, traffic circulation and public transport.

Relocation/outsourcing: 23 per cent of companies interviewed have relocated or outsourced operations to another country in the past three years, with Central & Eastern Europe being the favoured destination. Seventeen per cent of companies are planning to relocate or outsource operations to another country over the next two years.


Highlights from the 2003 survey
A survey of Europe's major business cities has found that London, Paris and Frankfurt continue to be regarded as the best of the top European cities in which to locate a business. Barcelona and Madrid are closing the gap on Brussels and Amsterdam, creating (with London, Paris and Frankfurt) a 'top seven' cities. Berlin has entered 8th place, and Munich moves up to 10th.

Global real estate firm Cushman & Wakefield Healey & Baker, using data researched for them by Taylor Nelson Sofres, has conducted the survey since 1990. It examines the issues companies consider important in deciding where to locate, and compares the performance of the cities on those issues.

Altogether, 501 companies from nine European countries were surveyed in 2003. The sample was systematically selected from the 15,000 largest companies in Europe, and included a representative sample of industrial, trading and service companies. The composition of the sample changes by about half each year.

Senior managers or board directors with responsibility for location conducted the interviews, which lasted an average of 20 minutes, by telephone in July 2003. Scores were weighted by Taylor Nelson Sofres according to nominations for best, second best and third best, and each score was compared with the scores of other cities and with the city's own scores over time.

Highlights of the survey's findings include that Barcelona and Madrid are closing the gap on Brussels and Amsterdam, creating (with London, Paris and Frankfurt) a 'top seven' cities. Berlin has entered 8th place, and Munich moves up to 10th.

Other cities to move up are Manchester (19th to 13th), Geneva (15th to 14th), Lisbon (17th to 15th), Lyon (20th to 19th), Warsaw (26th to 22nd), Budapest (25th to 23rd), Oslo (29th to 27th), and Moscow (30th to 28th). Marseilles and Rotterdam head the list of cities poised to penetrate the top 30.

Expansion of the European Union was seen as the most significant one when companies were asked to select from a series of factors constituting potential influences on business over the next ten years. The second and third most significant were, respectively, the performance of the US economy and competition from Asia.

The single most important issue when it comes to deciding where to locate is access to markets, with availability of qualified staff a close second. Communication factors, however, continue to be extremely important. Next come costs, with cost of staff the most important among them. Least significant are quality of life factors.

For availability of qualified staff, access to markets and international transport links, for telecommunications and for languages spoken, London rates first. Paris is top for transport within the city. Dublin comes first (again) in terms of climate created by government, Warsaw for the cost of staff, Lisbon for the value for money of offices, Berlin for availability of offices, Barcelona for quality of life and Oslo for freedom from pollution.

Other factors nominated as important were access to suppliers and presence of similar industries.

A new feature of the 2003 edition of the survey was the question of which non-European cities were best for each factor. New York received the strongest approval, particularly on the basis of communication issues.

London continues to lead Frankfurt as the perceived future financial market, although it is thought that in the medium term London's position will be affected adversely by the decision of the UK to stay out of the eurozone. Berlin and Frankfurt are seen as the cities most likely to lose as a consequence of the enlargement of the EU.

Senior executives from 501 European companies gave their
views on Europe's leading business cities. The principal
findings are:

The leading cities for business
* In the overall rating of best cities for business the top cities of London, Paris and Frankfurt remain unchanged.
* Barcelona and Madrid are closing the gap on Brussels and Amsterdam, creating a top seven cities.
* Berlin moves up to 8th, and Munich (10th) enters the top 10.
* The other cities to move up this year are: Manchester (19th to 13th), Geneva (15th to 14th), Lisbon (17th to 15th), Lyon (20th to 19th), Warsaw (26th to 22nd), Budapest (25th to 23rd), Oslo (29th to 27th), and Moscow (30th to 28th).
* Marseille and Rotterdam head the list of other cities threatening to break into the top 30.
* This year, for the first time, we asked companies for their views on the best non-European cities for each factor. New York receives the strongest support, particularly for communication issues.

Impact on business
* Companies were asked which of a series of factors was most likely to impact on their business over the next ten years. Enlargement of the EU is seen to be the most significant factor.
* The performance of the US economy is the second most significant factor, with competition from Asia next.

The key factors in deciding where to locate
* Access to markets just pips the availability of qualified staff as the single most important factor.
* Communication factors remain very important.
* Cost factors come next, with cost of staff the most important of these. Quality of life factors are the least significant.
* London is the top rated city for the availability of qualified staff, for access to markets and international transport links, for telecommunications factors, and for languages spoken.
* Paris is top for transport within the city. Dublin again comes top for the climate created by government, Warsaw for the cost of staff, Lisbon for the value for money of offices, Berlin for the availability of offices, Barcelona for quality of life, and Oslo for freedom from pollution.
* Access to suppliers, and presence of similar industries, are nominated as additional important factors when deciding where to locate.

Future roles within Europe
* London maintains its lead over Frankfurt as the perceived future financial capital.
* While the UK staying out of the eurozone has not harmed London's position to date, most believe it will do so over the medium term.
* With EU enlargement, Berlin and Frankfurt are seen as the cities most likely to lose out in terms of inward investment.

Company expansion
* Moscow is the city that can expect the biggest influx of companies over the next five years, with 46 of our sampled companies expecting to expand there.
* Warsaw, Prague, Budapest, and Paris can also expect a healthy inflow of companies.
* Companies are nominating more cities worldwide, with Beijing the clear favourite - 30 of our companies expect to expand there.
* Sao Paulo, Tokyo, Shanghai and New York can all also expect investment from Europe.

City promotion
* Barcelona, Madrid and Dublin are seen to be the most effective cities at self-promotion.
* Barcelona and Madrid, followed by Berlin, are also seen as the cities doing the most to improve themselves.
* Paris and London are nominated as the best cities for maintaining contact with companies who have already invested there.
* Only 14 of our top 30 cities are known very or fairly well by at least half the companies sampled.

Traffic control
* Pedestrianised zones, with no vehicles at certain times, is the traffic control measure most favoured by companies.
* Restricted use of roads in, and restricted parking, come next, ahead of congestion charging.
* Traffic control measures do not impact on locational decisions for the majority of companies.
* A minority of companies would, however, move outside the central zone, or even move city to avoid them.

The best cities to locate a business today
London maintains its leading position from Paris and Frankfurt. Barcelona and Madrid move closer to the top 5. Berlin moves up in the top 10. The small differences in scores of cities outside the top 7 means that slight changes in score can produce a movement of several places in the
rankings.