We know we’re not the only ones who have kind of wondered… why do huge global businesses like BMW, Michelin, Milliken + Denny’s choose to invest in our state (particularly the Upstate?)
When we were at The Pique, Morgan Crapps, Special Counsel for Nexsen Pruet, gave us a pretty easy breakdown:
- Our Charleston port + Greer inland port. That kind of infrastructure (in addition to highways, see #3) make distribution easier and faster – the inland port allows access to more than 95 million consumers within a day’s drive.
- We offer a trained workforce, thanks to programs like ReadySC. There’s an abundance of workers ready to fill the jobs manufacturers need, which is extremely attractive to large companies that want to hit the ground running with new facilities.
- Connectivity, thanks to the I-85 corridor. Companies want easy connections to others markets (we’re right in the center of the Southeast region).
- There’s a low cost of doing business in S.C. – energy, construction, and labor costs are comparatively lower.
- We’re a smaller state, which means we can do more hand-holding for businesses expanding here and development can progress more quickly than it might in a bigger state.
- There’s prime opportunity for university research partnerships (like CU-ICAR), which help move the industry forward.
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