A new marketing initiative has been launched which positions the Blackpool area as a leading location for business investment in the UK.
Taking place at Blackpool & The Fylde College’s Lancashire Energy HQ, the event highlighted new data revealing significant strengths across industry sectors including aerospace and advanced engineering, energy, advanced materials technologies and food manufacturing. The event also emphasised Blackpool’s transformed town centre offer to service sector businesses.
The launch of ‘Blackpool: The Place for Business’ marks the beginning of a digital campaign which will celebrate the town’s business strengths and regeneration successes. The project aims to leverage the online support of the local business community to put Blackpool on the global stage for business investment.
The initiative is backed by numerous high-profile supporters from both the business community and public sector bodies, such as Cllr Mark Smith, Cabinet Member for Business, Enterprise and Job Creation: “When people think of Blackpool, they often picture tourism. What they don’t see are the impacts of our £1bn Growth and Prosperity Programme which includes our leading Enterprise Zones which house world-class businesses, our first rate upgraded Winter Gardens conference centre, our transformed town centre offices and the fact that Blackpool will be the first town to roll out 5G networks for digital start-ups.”
Speaking to an audience of business leaders, key speaker Nick Smillie took to the stage to reveal some insights from recent research.
“The Blackpool area provides investing companies with direct access to UK-leading industry clusters, high-quality property and site solutions and a large-scale, skilled workforce,” he began.
“The area saves businesses money too, with significant labour and property costs advantages versus key competitor UK locations. It all adds up to a powerful location proposition for businesses in the town’s target sectors.”
Other speakers at the event included: Claire Lee, Director of New Business at Blackpool and The Fylde College; Mark Bowen, Business Gateway Manager at Lancaster University; Martin Long, Commercial Property Partner for the local property market and collaboration between the public and private sectors at Napthens Solicitors; and Nick Gerrard, Growth and Prosperity Programme Director at Blackpool Council.
The event ended with a call to action – urging the business community to become advocates for the campaign, sharing messages and online content through platforms including LinkedIn and Twitter.
“Blackpool has a great offer for investing business,” said Mr Smillie. “Working together, we intend get that message out to companies in the UK and internationally, to position Blackpool firmly as a thriving business location.”
