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Location Leeds: open for business

Essential guide to the Leeds commercial property market, showcasing the city's premier business locations. Features out of town and city centre offices, retail and industrial premises. Published in association with Yorkshire Business Insider.

Leeds:The Facts
the key facts

Statistical overview of the economy of Leeds and the city region including information on key sectors, workforce, population and output.

Business in Leeds:
the key facts

Detailed information on the Leeds economy covering everything from financial services to the media, workforce and skills also providing an overview of the Leeds lifestyle including education, leisure and healthcare.

Holbeck Urban Village: a creative location for business

A fast developing location for creative and digital media businesses close to the centre of Leeds. Includes case studies of companies based in the area.

Government departments and agencies

Detailed report is available setting out the advantages of Leeds as a location for government departments and agencies. Includes case studies.

Shared Service Centres

Detailed report on advantages of Leeds as a location for shared services centres. Includes studies of shared services operations based in Leeds.

Making it in Leeds

Detailed report on the manufacturing sector in Leeds, including case studies on some of the city's leading manufacturers.

Conference Leeds

Guide to 290 venues for conferences, seminars and training events in Leeds, Bradford, Huddersfield, Wakefield and Pennine Yorkshire.

Manufacturing

Leeds is the UK’s third largest manufacturing centre and 50% of the UK’s manufacturing base is within a two hour drive of Leeds. In the Leeds City Region, 181,000 people are employed in manufacturing.

With around 1,800 firms and 39,000 employees, Leeds manufacturing firms account for 8.8% of total employment in the city. A strong manufacturing culture exists within the city, supported by a large and skilled workforce able to adapt to the rapid technological advances driving the industry.

The largest sub-sectors are engineering, printing and publishing, food and drink, chemicals and medical technology. More information about the manufacturing sector in Leeds, including case studies on leading manufacturing companies, can be found in this downloadable report.

Leeds companies manufacture an extremely diverse range of products including heart valves, surgical instruments, newspapers and magazines, buses,  jet turbine blades, high voltage switchgear and motor components.

Some of the largest manufacturing companies in Leeds are Moores Furniture Group, Symingtons, AETC, Cameron, Lever Faberge, Schneider Electric, Communisis, Scientific Games, Arla Foods, Nampak Cartons, and Sulzer (UK) Pumps.

Engineering is the largest manufacturing sector in Leeds with approximately 13,250 employees in around 700 companies. Recent arrivals include Siemens, which has invested in a new £1.2 million plant for its mechanical drives business.

A network of Centres for Industrial Collaboration has been established to encourage closer working between industry and the region’s universities. Five of the centres – specialising in biomaterials and tissue engineering, food, particle science, digital print and wireless technologies – are based at the University of Leeds.

Leeds is the UK’s largest centre outside London for printing, packaging and publishing, with over 400 companies, employing 6,100 people. Leeds City College is the largest provider of print-related training in the north of England.

The Keyworth Institute has been established to develop partnerships between industry and the Faculties of Business and Engineering at the University of Leeds. The institute offers a unique executive masters degree in manufacturing leadership and enables industry to access the university’s research and development capabilities in fields such as electronic, electrical, mechanical and environmental engineering.

Leeds is home to Electronics Yorkshire, which provides bespoke training for electronics companies in the region.