Location Benchmarking

When deciding on a global location strategy, you need an advisory team that can gauge regional advantages and disadvantages to determine the most competitive regions for your operations. Establishing a search region is critical to successful site selection. Following our proven Location Benchmarking strategy, The GLS advisory team evaluates countries, states, regions, metros, cities, or counties on their ability to meet the specific needs of your manufacturing or industrial project. Our evaluation ranks prospective locations based on a composite analysis of qualitative factors and the major factors of cost for the operation.

Dare to Compare l Choose the level that works the best for your project and budget

Make Your Case with Confidence

Before you spend time and money on looking for sites in less than optimal locations, we consider your project criteria, apply our global expertise and real-world experience, and determine the region or regions of the world that are optimal for your business.  Our analysis includes industry-specific, location-dependent investment, and operational costs as well as the qualitative factors that impact your ability to be successful. 

Cost factors include energy costs, labor rates, lease costs, tax burdens, and logistics costs. While these costs are not site-specific, they are indicative of the costs that will be the norm for the given locations and provide enough detail to determine more likely cost-competitive locations. Qualitative factors include regulatory, labor, and the general business climate. 
 
The objective is to determine a search region made up only of those locations that offer the best combination of low cost and high quality. Information provided in the benchmarking analysis can also provide real-world, defensible detail for business case development. 

We Help You Focus on the Details That Matters Most

By assessing multiple critical data points on potential locations, our location benchmarking analysis considers project-specific criteria that are weighted and scored according to factors that include:

• Labor Availability and Quality
• Infrastructure and Accessibility
• General Business Environment
• Living Environment

Sub-criteria in each of these four main categories are also weighted and scored according to their relative importance to your project.

More than just a list of potential locations, the GLS benchmarking service provides data that strengthens business case development and informs future site selection projects. Deliverables of the analysis include the following: 

• A thorough analysis of location-dependent cost and qualitative factors on countries, cities or states, and provinces against your project’s requirements
• Estimated investment and operating costs to help you build an investment case with cost inputs based on actual experience
• A defined search region made up of only the locations that best fit your operation’s needs 

Proven Location Benchmarking Methods Deliver Reliable Results

The GLS Location Benchmarking service begins with a project alignment session, during which our teams collaboratively determine primary data requirements and prospective locations to include in the study. After developing a project profile, determining reporting requirements, and establishing a communication plan, we proceed with a well-defined scope, team, and schedule.

To provide the clarity your project deserves, our team will conduct a detailed analysis and construct comparative cost and conditions to create a comprehensive assessment of the most promising sites. With an established network of relationships with more than 3,500 economic developers, GLS draws from a deep well of industry experience to compile essential site details you need to make informed decisions.