Rick Weddle: Welcome to “Site Selection Matters” where we take a close look at the art and science of site selection decision making. I’m your host Rick Weddle, president of the Site Selectors Guild. In each episode, we introduce you to leaders in the world of corporate site selection and economic development. We speak with members of the Site Selectors Guide, our economic development partners, and corporate decision-makers to provide you with deep insight into the best and next practices in our profession.

In this episode, we have as our guest, Andreas Dressler, managing director of Location Decisions, Berlin, Germany based location advisory firm that assists companies in the location analysis and site selection in Europe and around the world. Today, Andreas will talk with us about investment attraction strategies in the post-COVID-19 world in which we live today. Join me as we welcome Andreas Dressler to “Site Selection Matters”.

Andreas, we’re all working every day to try to figure out how to best manage in this new environment. What are you seeing really in Germany in terms of re-opening the economy?

Andreas Dressler: Well, I think the approach has been very different throughout all of Europe, so Germany specifically or Germany specifically. It’s starting to slowly re-open, so people are starting to go back to work, factories particularly in the automotive industry which has caused a lot of concern have re-opened in many cases.

So, things are returning to some semblance of normalcy. You have a similar development in other European countries. Some countries primarily the Nordic countries like Sweden have had a more relaxed attitude. Things there have been going on pretty much as normal.

Countries that have been more impacted like Spain and Italy are also slowly starting to re-open and have introduced re-opening plans that will see their economies not go back to full capacity but certainly see major industries get back online between now and the end of June.

Rick: Well, thank you, Andreas. That’s really interesting. I haven’t used the word normal in a sentence in the last few weeks without having the word new in front of it, so we’re all trying to figure out what will be the new normal as we go forward. Why don’t you take a minute if you don’t mind to help our audience understand what you see, as a corporate location advisor, in the corporate investment and global growth dynamics, the changes that are underway?

Andreas: The biggest question I think for everybody in this field, whether you’re a site selector or an economic developer, is what’s going to happen to investment, what’s happening with investment projects. And probably everybody has experienced the same thing. Projects are being put on hold or being canceled out, right? That’s happening for different reasons.

Now, certainly there are a lot of companies in industries that are being impacted very hard, and they’ve had to cancel their projects because their focus right now is really on survival. It’s on retaining cash. It’s on not laying off too many workers. And the last thing these companies are thinking of is expanding. So those projects are pretty much gone.

We also see a lot of companies, and this is probably the largest group based on my experience and some of the conversations I’ve been having that are simply putting projects on hold. In many cases, these are companies that want to invest, have fundamental reasons to be investing, but because of the uncertainty around everywhere in the world right now, they just can’t make those decisions. They’re waiting to see how thin

Rick Weddle: Welcome to “Site Selection Matters,” where we take a close look at the art and science of site selection decision-making. I am your host, Rick Weddle, President of the Site Selectors Guild. In each episode, we introduce you to leaders in the world of corporate site selection and economic development. We speak with members of the Site Selectors Guild, our economic development partners, and corporate decision-makers to provide you with deep insight into the best and next practices in our profession.

In this episode, we have as our guest, Jerry Szatan with Szatan & Associates, a Chicago-based location strategy, site selection, and economic development consulting firm. Today Jerry will talk with us about current and future food industry trends. More specifically, we’ll talk with Jerry about factors shaping food processing site selection and the overall impact of COVID-19 on site selection in the food industry. Join me as we welcome Jerry Szatan to “Site Selection Matters.”

Jerry, we’ve been on a long period of economic expansion. Now with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, and given that our economy is going into a contracting phase, what do you see the outlook for food projects now?

Jerry Szatan: There’s a two-part answer. In terms of output, I think that food processors will continue to hum along. In some cases, there’ll probably be increased demand for the products for things like canned goods and other shelf-stable or product. If you take a look at the Great Recession, the Federal Reserve puts out data on capacity utilization and food production essentially stayed stable throughout the recession. Maybe it was down a percentage point or two, whereas other industries like computer peripherals, for example, just plunged. So, I think production will stay stable and perhaps increase in certain products. However, site selection becomes a different sort of thing. I think that new facility decisions for the time being as everybody tries to scramble to maintain current production, I think new facility decisions are likely to be on the back-burner.

Rick: That’s interesting. The point is obviously food is food and we have to eat. I mean, right now a lot of us are having to get food delivered to our house, whether it’s a takeout from restaurants or just ordering food deliveries. Do you see that kind of just-in-time delivery requirement to changing anything specific to the food distribution business?

Jerry: Yeah, I think it will. That’s an interesting development. I was reading just the other day that one of the meal kit companies was hiring significantly just as our grocery stores. There was a company in Chicago called Peapod who was pioneer in food delivery. I think it was in February, so it wasn’t due so much to the COVID-19, but it was due to changes in the industry, they announced that they were closing up their Chicago operations. And their model had been that you would place your order one day and you would get your delivery the next. That model became uncompetitive, I suppose, when people started getting used to placing your orders with Amazon through Whole Foods and getting your deliveries in two hours. So, I think that desire for convenience on the part of consumers will continue. One longer-term impact of COVID-19 may be that there just be maybe more interest in meal preparation kits, cooking at home and so on. But convenience and speed of delivery will count, I think, in at-home food delivery, just as it does in…increasingly in other aspects of e-commerce.

Rick: And I think it’s too early to tel

Rick Weddle: Welcome to ”Site Selection Matters,” where we take a close look at the art and science of site selection decision-making. I’m your host, Rick Weddle, president of the Site Selectors Guild. In each episode, we introduce you to leaders in the world of corporate site selection and economic development. We speak with members of the Site Selectors Guild, our economic development partners, and corporate decision makers to provide you with deep insight into the best and next practices in our profession.

In this episode, we have as our guest, Michelle Comerford, industrial and supply chain practice lead for Biggins Lacy Shapiro & Company, a leading site selection firm. Today, Michelle will talk with us about how COVID-19 pandemic has impacted manufacturers and their supply chains. More specifically, we’ll be talking to Michelle about what firms are doing right now to respond to this evolving global crisis. Join me as we welcome Michelle Comerford to ”Site Selection Matters.”

Michelle, before we jump into the COVID-19 discussion, take a minute, if you will, to explain to our listeners exactly what a supply chain is.

Michelle Comerford: Yeah, Rick. So certainly, a term that if you didn’t hear it much before people are hearing a lot of it these days in the news. But a supply chain basically is the sequence of raw materials, parts, supplies that go into manufacturing a product and everything that is kind of in that chain to get it into a manufacturing plant, make that product, and then ship it and deliver it to customers. So, if you can imagine anything around your house kinda what all went into making that product, that is a supply chain. And the interesting thing about supply chains in manufacturing is that over the past couple of decades, many of them have become very complex. As we become a more global society, companies are sourcing parts for their products from all over the world. And they went to that model for a lot of different reasons, but it’s added a lot of complexity to our manufacturing environment today.

Rick: So just because something we think was made in one country or another country, we have to look deeper, could be that the component parts are made in another country. And that makes it more vulnerable, I guess, to some sort of disruption.

Michelle: Absolutely. In fact, most things you see probably have some, one or more parts that have come from a different country than where it was ultimately made in. And so it’s been an interesting time as we have seen a lot of disruption lately.

Rick: Yeah. So that’s very interesting. So obviously the conversation topic of the day is this COVID-19 situation, which has really turned the whole world upside down. Just how has that impacted manufacturers and manufacturing overall?

Michelle: Well, that is a very loaded question, especially these days. COVID-19 has impacted manufacturing and in lots of different ways. In the U.S., you know, a month or more ago now, the impacts were largely on that supply chain as manufacturing companies over in China, where a lot of things and parts and products are made as they had to shut down to prevent the spread of COVID-19, those plants suddenly couldn’t send those parts and supplies to U.S. manufacturers who are depending on them to make their products here. As the inventory that U.S. manufacturers had in stock, as that dwindled, a lot of those companies suddenly weren’t able to fulfill the orders they had for product. So that was, you know, a month or two ago.

Then looking at a couple of weeks ago, a

In this week’ episode, host Rick Weddle, President of the Site Selectors Guild, interviews Dennis Donovan, Principal of Wadley Donovan Gutshaw Consulting, about the site selection process abroad. Dennis walks us through the site selector’s role in international corporate location decisions and how International Promotion Agencies (IPAs) can better position communities abroad for Foreign Direct Investment (FDI).

Rick Weddle: Welcome to “Site Selection Matters,” where we take a closer look at the art and science of site selection decision making. I’m your host, Rick Weddle, President at Site Selectors Guild. In each episode, we introduce you to leaders in the world of corporate site selection and economic development. We speak with members of the Site Selectors Guild, our economic development partners, and corporate decision-makers to provide you with deep insight into the best and next practices in our profession.

In this episode, we have as our guest, Dennis Donovan, Principal with Wadley Donovan Gutshaw Consulting; WDG Consulting advises corporations on geographic deployment of business operations, including manufacturing plants, distribution centers, R&D centers, IT centers, call centers, back offices, and headquarters operations. Today, Dennis will talk with us about how international investment promotion agencies or IPAs can become more effective in attracting U.S.-based direct or cross-border investment. Join me as we welcome Dennis Donovan to “Site Selection Matters.”

Dennis, today, we’re talking about international investment promotion agencies or IPA and what’s needed for them to be more effective in attracting U.S.-based investment. Take a minute, if you will, and explain, from your perspective, how the process of attracting investment works in the U.S.?

Dennis Donovan: Well, the process, Rick, is pretty much uniform, irrespective of the geography involved, and generally speaking, it’s a very structured process that a company would follow to identify and ultimately select a new location. And the process begins in what we call discovery or definition. And that’s identifying why is there a need for expanding or contracting the footprint of an organization? You know, what are those drivers? What are the business objectives that hope to be accomplished? And then from there, what are the requirements of the new operation in terms of its headcount, its access to customers, access to suppliers, real estate, and so forth. And then, you have to identify, you know, what geography are we looking at? Is this going to be targeted at a specific region of the United States or a region of the world? And if so, is the region being targeted to service customers better, to balance the footprint from a geography risk and supply chain standpoint, or to reduce costs? So, there’s that involved.

So, sometimes, the geography is small, is one state or one country, or it could be an entire continent or a couple of continents. So, that’s important. And then a company needs to identify and agree upon, what are the criteria? What is really overarching in terms of its importance? You know, in other words, these are must-haves to guarantee successful operation in a new location. And then, you’ve got important and somewhat important criteria. So, all that has got to be sorted out.

Once that’s agreed upon, then comes the analytical phases. And the first phase is to be able to identify where are the potentially best locations? We call that a long list. Well, it’s a very systematic and metric-driven process to ultimately start out with a universe of locational candidates. It could be 100 areas, 200 areas, more or less, and how do we get down to a manageable number that we can take a closer look at?

And this is where the rub comes in international site selection. We have very robust and extensive sources of data to be able to conduct this, what I call location screening, the winnowing down process, if we will, in the United States. Overseas, the available data far less expansive and uniform th

Rick Weddle: Welcome to “Site Selection Matters” where we take a close look at the art and science of site selection decision-making. I’m your host, Rick Weddle, president of the Site Selectors Guild. In each episode, we introduce you to leaders in the world of corporate site selection and economic development. We speak with members of the Site Selectors Guild, our economic development partners, and corporate decision-makers to provide you with deep insight into the best and next practices in our profession. In this episode, we have as our guest, Von Hatley, managing director with Jones Walker Consulting, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Jones Walker law firm, headquartered in New Orleans, Louisiana, with offices across the United States. Today, Von will talk with us about advanced manufacturing and more specifically, how regions and communities can improve their competitive position by optimizing their advanced manufacturing capabilities. Join me as we welcome Von Hatley to “Site Selection Matters.” Von, we hear a lot about advanced manufacturing today. Take a minute or two if you will, to define exactly what advanced manufacturing is, and should mean for our listeners.

Von Hatley: So, first, thanks Rick for inviting me on the call today. The classical definition of advanced manufacturing is the use of innovative technology to improve products or processes. You see advanced manufacturing in many industries, but it really was born out of the research and development that came with the automotive and the aerospace industry, in addition to defense. What it means though is it’s the process to create new materials or change the molecular structure of feedstock. But it also means several different things to several different companies. Some of the newest things we see in manufacturing today is the use of 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, in addition to mechatronics, which is where people are integrating robotics softwares and electrical and mechanical systems to control and produce new products from there.

Rick: So, Von, is there really any manufacturing today that isn’t advanced or isn’t working to be advanced?

Von: Well, I think the answer is, is you really have two types of manufacturing today. One is advanced manufacturing and the other one is the manufacturers that are going out of business. At the end of the day, you can take something as simple as a toothpick. It’s made by a tree and turns into a small thing that you can hold in your hand that can be shrink-wrapped, all without the use of human hands to touch the product. And so, at the end of the day, I think that all manufacturers are working to advance their ability to produce their products and services, and then that they all wind up becoming advanced manufacturers over time.

Rick: So, it’s really just that use of that innovation, that new technology, these advanced platforms to be relevant and timely and correct in this current environment. So, out with the old and in with the new, so we say. Hey, Von, let’s unpack this whole answer a bit if we can. Talk a little bit more about advanced manufacturing, specifically the supply chains, and maybe how these supply chains can be optimized at the regional or other levels to support new investment and new job growth.

Von: Sure. Well, let’s first talk about what a company is doing to advance their supply chain. We’ve seen this only with the transportation, with the Toyota Production System in the 1970s and early ’80s into just in time manufacturing. And what that has evolved into over the last 40 year

Rick Weddle: Welcome to “Site Selection Matters,” where we take a close look at the art and science of site selection decision-making. I’m your host, Rick Weddell, President of the Site Selectors Guild. In each episode, we introduce you to leaders in the world of corporate site selection and economic development. We speak with members of the Site Selectors Guild, our economic development partners, and corporate decision-makers to provide you with deep insight into the best and next practices in our profession.

In this episode, we have as our guest Will Hearn, Director of Site Selection and Real Estate for Origis Energy, one of the largest independent utility-scale solar developers in the United States. Today, Will talks with us about solar power generally, and the economic development implications of solar power more specifically. Join me as we welcome Will Hearn to “Site Selection Matters.” Will, energy and economic development go hand in hand. Without a reliable and cost-effective energy source, economic growth isn’t really possible. Take a minute, if you will, and help our listeners understand how growth in solar power is impacting economic development overall.

Will Hearn: Well, thank you, Rick, and thanks to the Guild for taking an interest in solar. I think there are many areas where the economic development community can engage and should take an interest in solar, and obviously, energy is a key underpinning for site selection and economic development. But just in terms of broad overview, I mean, solar as a generation resource is still a relatively small proportion of the overall energy generation in the U.S., but it is growing significantly. Coal plants are being retired, solar is very cost-effective, and I think one of the things to remember is, you know, one of the things that we’re really seeing interest in is companies themselves seeking sources of renewable energy. And I think that that aspect is becoming more of a site selection issue, is where can certain types of industries source and procure renewable energy on their own, and so solar is a big piece of that.

So just in terms of the broad perspective, that sort of where solar, I think, fits into some of the economic development questions that are out there today. I do think there are…you know, it’s funny whenever I sit down at table talk at the Site Selectors Guild conference, there’s rarely a table that I sit at where Origis is not taking an interest in securing assets for solar or where we may have solar resources currently generating energy. So, I think, in some ways, solar is new to the economic development world, but I would encourage all of the listeners to this podcast to take an interest in solar and learn more about it and understand how it fits into their economic development plans.

Rick: Very interesting. Will, let’s just hold that just a second, let’s dive a little deeper into the solar power business generally because you mentioned that it’s very cost-effective. How does the cost of today’s solar power systems compare to more traditional fossil fuel systems?

Will: Well, keep in mind, at Origis, we’re mainly utility-scale solar and distributed-system solar. So, you know, we’re not doing the residential housing. We’re talking about systems that power large megawatt systems for utility companies. So, you know, when I first got involved in solar, probably back in ’06, I mean, it wasn’t really something that we thought about, you know, measuring energy resources in the co

Rick Weddle: Welcome to “Site Selection Matters,” where we take a close look at the art and science of site selection decision-making. I’m your host, Rick Weddle, president of the Site Selectors Guild. In each episode, we introduce you to leaders in the world of corporate site selection and economic development. We speak with members of the Site Selectors Guild, our economic development partners, and corporate decision-makers to provide you with deep insight into the best and next practices in our profession. In this episode, we have as our guest, Robyn Domber, vice president of research for Development Counsellors International or DCI. They’re one of the leading place marketing firms in the nation. Today, Robyn Domber will talk with us about research and economic development and site location. More specifically, we will talk with Robyn about some of the research initiatives, DCI has undertaken on behalf of the Site Selectors Guild. Join me as we welcome Robyn Domber to “Site Selection Matters.” Robyn, the guild has undertaken a number of research initiatives over the last few months, including a Survey of Corporate Executives and their understanding of the site selection profession overall. Why is it important for the guild to conduct this type of research?

Robyn Domber: Sure. Well, first of all, thanks so much, Rick, for having me on the call today. You know, over the past few years, as a result of some pretty high-profile location decisions such as Amazon and Foxconn and others, you know, we’ve really seen the topic of site selection move from one that’s essentially only been discussed among corporate executives and consultants to something that’s really moved into the national and international headlines. So, we know what was out there in the media and you know, the stories around these location decisions, these high-profile location decisions that were being covered in the media, but the guild didn’t necessarily have a strong baseline metric and benchmark on how familiar corporate executives actually are with the site selection industry and professionals within that industry. So, it was really important, you know, for us to conduct a National Survey of Corporate Executives to really find out what is that actual level of familiarity beyond, you know, what they’re reading in the headlines. And we really wanted to take a deeper dive into the industry as a whole find out, you know, what their level of knowledge and interest in the industry was as well as their overall perceptions of that industry. And what we did is we ended up with 143 executives that weighed in, and I think the results were actually a little bit different than what we expected, which was important also. You know, we sort of had anecdotal evidence and sort of ideas of what the research would say, but actually having those hard and fast numbers, so it’s really important in setting that baseline, familiarity, and perception benchmark.

Rick: You know, Robyn, I learned a long time ago that the plural of anecdote is not data. So, a lot of times we find a lot of things we think people say or believe, we find out when we get to the data, it’s maybe a little bit different than that. Let’s unpack those findings if we can just a bit, what exactly did you find the study to reveal regarding maybe let’s just say the primary benefits of utilizing a site selection consultant over other professionals?

Robyn: Sure. Sure. So, it’s interesting because I think, you know, one of the more surprising findings was that we actually fo

Rick Weddle: Welcome to “Site Selection Matters,” where we take a closer look at the art and science of site selection decision-making. I’m your host, Rick Weddle, president the Site Selectors Guild. In each episode, we introduce you to top leaders in the world of corporate site selection and economic development. We speak with members of the Guild, our economic development partners, and corporate decision-makers to provide you with deep insight into the best and next practices in our profession.

In this episode, we have as our guest, Elias van Herwaarden, principle with Locationperspectives. In this capacity, Elias assists companies in building and restructuring their business internationally. This includes a wide range of services and location selection, footprint optimization, and globalization [inaudible 00:00:48] helping companies successfully adapt their products and services to local markets. Today Elias will talk with us about Brexit, and what it means, and what we can expect in the coming year. Join me as we welcome Elias van Herwaarden to “Site Selection Matters.”

Elias, almost three and a half years after the cliffhanger June 2016 Brexit referendum, the British people overwhelmingly voted in favor of Prime Minister Johnson’s plan to take the UK out of the European Union by 2021. Before we get into the details of that, and what comes next, however, why don’t you take a minute or two and explain to our listeners just what Brexit is?

Elias van Herwaarden: Thanks for the question, Rick. If I knew I’d be really different from all the other Europeans, be they British or Continentals. Because the only thing we do know is that the UK population voted to leave the European Union and that process is called Brexit. But what it will entail for all of us, we just don’t know. The decision has been made finally after long and very difficult years, but what it means to business will all be decided, God willing, between now and December 31. Because December 31, Rick, that’s the date when the UK Prime Minister Johnson said we will leave the European Union. But the terms of that, and so the terms of what Brexit actually means, have yet to be [inaudible 00:02:30] negotiated.

Rick: That’s really interesting. You know, Elias, I’ve often said that business can deal with just about anything but uncertainty. And it sounds like you’re suggesting or that it’s obvious that we have before us a full year runway of uncertainty.

Elias: I wish it were different, Rick, but I’m afraid your conclusion is just right. I mean, for the last three years businesses globally, and particularly Europe have been worried about well are we going to have Brexit? And what is it going to look like? Well, we passed the first hurdle, we know we’re going to have Brexit that is absolutely a done deal. There’s no doubt about it. But now the second doubt emerges, what is it going to look like? And will there be a lot of uncertainty? Absolutely, yes. Absolutely, yes. I mean, there has been a deal proposed by Prime Minister May and that deal has kind of been enforced to a certain extent by the current Prime Minister Johnson, but the details of the deal are still going to be negotiated, God willing, over the next 12 months. But even on that next 12 months, I mean, I know we’re looking for certainty as business people, but today already the EU High Commissioner, the president of the EU, European Union, Ursula von der Leyen, said, well, we may need to extend the December 31 deadline. And she didn’t do that for fun. She didn’t do that out of p

Rick Weddle: Welcome to “Site Selection Matters” where we take a close look at the art and science of site selection decision making. I’m your host, Rick Weddle, president of the Site Selectors Guild. In each episode, we introduce you to the top leaders in the world of corporate site selection and economic development. We speak with members of the guild, our economic development partners, and corporate decision-makers to provide you with deep insight into the best and next practices in our profession.

In this episode, we have as our guest, Bob Hess, vice chairman for global strategy with Newmark. In this capacity, Bob is team leader for their global business and real estate practice, and he’s responsible for strategy development, quality assurance, business development, and overall client service.

Today, Bob will talk with us about life sciences, an industry he’s conducted many site selection efforts for, and why it is a top targeted sector among scores of metros, ecosystems, corridors, and even countries around the world. Join me as we welcome Bob Hess to “Site Selection Matters.”

Bob, ever since the human genome was mapped, many different forms, or functions, or segments of life science have really become top of mind in economic development. Take a minute, if you will, and explain to our listeners exactly what we mean by life sciences and economic activity.

Bob Hess: Thanks, Rick. Yeah. Life science is such a dynamic innovation — I’ll call it growth industry — that everybody wants to participate in. And here’s some of the reasons why. There’re almost two million jobs in the sector, 100,000 companies. And, obviously, what a lot of communities like to hear is the average salary is anywhere from $75,000 to $150,000, depending on whether you’re looking at technicians or higher-end scientists or even more than that, of course. So, it’s a very high-impact industry.

It also involves a lot of research dollars, you know, almost $200 billion in 2019. And, of course, that’s increasing by tens of billions of dollars every year. So, it’s a global industry. It is an offshoot of different types of fields like biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, biomed, a lot of life system technologies. Maybe you’ve heard of things like nutraceuticals or even cosmeceuticals, food processing, environmental, certainly biomedical devices, and all kinds of issues around therapeutics and biologics.

And it’s all underpinned by a huge supply chain for the life science industry. So, think about stories of all those molecular elements, and biologics, and core blood or blood samples. So, it continues to be just a, you know, big economic driver here in the United States and across the globe.

Rick: Big driver, it is. Let’s follow up a little bit, kind of unpack that set of definitions a bit. Talk a little bit about how the growth of this industry from a job-creating standpoint. Because, you know, in a life science facility, there’s a lot of different…not everybody in there is a PhD scientist. There are a lot of different kinds of jobs associated with it. Do you have any comments on that?

Bob: Yeah. No. It’s a lot. It’s like the word “supply chain.” It’s a huge concept in that industry, different elements, different segments. This could get into agriculture, too. This can get into, obviously, the health care systems. This is about improving people’s lives and quality of life, and making sure that we improve the health, secure more sustainable food supply, promote cleaner energy, too. It all is linked to the life sc