Leicester, the City of Champions and the place where Richard III made his reappearance after 500 years. But it’s also becoming one of the places to do business. The city has long had a reputation for entrepreneurship, with Forbes magazine reporting in 2020 that Leicester had seen a huge rise in new start-ups, and this was confirmed last year, when it was ranked fourth in the UK for new businesses.
This impressive stat has been backed up by Government investment, as anyone who has spent any time in Leicester recently can attest to. Leicester and Leicestershire is recognised by government as an area worth investing in, receiving more than £65 million for regeneration projects, including the build of a National Science and Conservation Centre at Twycross Zoo.
The county’s location is clearly attractive to businesses, located in the heart of the UK with fantastic access via road, rail and air. Bisected by the M1, both London and Birmingham are only an hour away by train. In East Midlands Airport, Leicestershire has the country's most significant airport for express freight, and the UK’s only inland Freeport.
It’s no surprise then that a number of major international companies have chosen to base their operations here. This includes companies who are Leicestershire ‘born and bred’ like Next, Walkers and Triumph, or more recent arrivals such as Mattioli Woods, IBM with brands like Amazon and DHL benefiting from the excellent connectivity for their processing centres.
Alongside the logistics and service industry boom, Leicestershire is also a hub for high tech industry thanks in part to its three world class universities. Many of the latest innovations in automotive industry come straight from the MIRA Technology Park, Europe’s leading research and development site, which includes both engineering labs and test tracks.
Charnwood Science and Enterprise Park is home to the very best in life sciences development including growing pharmaceutical companies. And of course, Leicester has long been known as the UK’s Space City, and the recently established Space Park brings together leading researchers with industry experts to develop new technology for space exploration and analyse data from space missions.
A huge amount of flexible workspace space is available for creative, high tech and many other types of businesses. With its steady stream of well-qualified and innovative graduates, Leicester is the ideal place to take advantage of the boom in high quality employees.
This tourism boon is thanks to the area’s huge amount of unique attractions, ranging from the National Space Centre to traditional steam railways. Visitors are choosing to stay here for longer, giving a welcome boost to restaurants and accommodation.
All this change means it’s the perfect time to look into setting up in Leicester, and Rob McGuinn, the Chair of Team Leicester, a business membership organisation established to promote investment in Leicester and Leicestershire said: "Leicester's recent transformation, powered by public-private collaboration, is impressive. Team Leicester is focused on leveraging this momentum to propel our city and county further onto the national and international stage, positioning them as premier destinations for business and investment."