Economic dynamism is catching
Today, whenever any big company considers moving to France, Nantes always makes the shortlist. And for good reason. The region’s extremely diversified economy has cast it in a hundred new directions at once.
Startup creation rate is highest in France. One-quarter of the companies here are over 20 percent foreign-owned. Rents are 30 percent cheaper than in other big French cities, like Lyon.
GDP in 2005 was v 85 billion, seven percent of the national total. That same year, Nantes businesses created over 5,000 jobs, a 2.5 percent rise. Services to business, with 4,000 additional jobs, are driving growth. The region has France’s highest rate of professional activity and the most employment among its active population.
The economy has spread so widely, and grown so mixed, that it’s no longer easy to pin down to a sector or two. Nantes prefers variety. It mingles traditional industries - like food processing or aeronautics, where it has led for years - with emerging activities like information technology and biotech. Nantes leads Europe in shipbuilding, is France’s number-two region for aerospace together with Saint-Nazaire and is its third financial center. This combination has given the city an impetus that has fueled 2.8 percent growth every year for the past decade and a half.
Two top-ranked, accredited business schools, and 10 technology and engineering universities are further reasons why companies choose Nantes. Over 150,000 students make the region an important center of higher education and research. The ranks of engineers and trained professionals emerging from institutions here mean firms have no problem finding and recruiting competent staff.
No wonder the region has drawn international leaders from Toyota, Thomson, Saab, Daimler Benz and Danone.
Startup creation rate is highest in France. One-quarter of the companies here are over 20 percent foreign-owned. Rents are 30 percent cheaper than in other big French cities, like Lyon. GDP in 2005 was v 85 billion, seven percent of the national total. That same year, Nantes businesses created over 5,000 jobs, a 2.5 percent rise. Services to business, with 4,000 additional jobs, are driving growth. The region has France’s highest rate of professional activity and the most employment among its active population.
The economy has spread so widely, and grown so mixed, that it’s no longer easy to pin down to a sector or two. Nantes prefers variety. It mingles traditional industries - like food processing or aeronautics, where it has led for years - with emerging activities like information technology and biotech. Nantes leads Europe in shipbuilding, is France’s number-two region for aerospace together with Saint-Nazaire and is its third financial center. This combination has given the city an impetus that has fueled 2.8 percent growth every year for the past decade and a half.
Two top-ranked, accredited business schools, and 10 technology and engineering universities are further reasons why companies choose Nantes. Over 150,000 students make the region an important center of higher education and research. The ranks of engineers and trained professionals emerging from institutions here mean firms have no problem finding and recruiting competent staff.
No wonder the region has drawn international leaders from Toyota, Thomson, Saab, Daimler Benz and Danone.
Nantes prefers variety.
Part of the draw is culture. City Hall puts 15 percent of its budget into the arts. Popular events like the Folle Journée classical music festival and the Royal de Luxe street parade have made Nantes known across Europe. These events have a sizeable economic after effect. In 2007, two mammoth new projects have been completed : the 8,500-seat Zenith theater, and creation of an Architecture Biennale, to be called Estuaire 2007.
“Four or five years ago, people didn’t mention Nantes,” says Thierry Carlier Lacour, President and CEO of Robert Half human resources firm. “Today, it has an excellent image.” And firms are unanimous : “We’re sorry we didn’t come sooner,” they say.
Luxury liners, the Airbus aircraft and output from the food-processing industries are all products made in Nantes, as are state-of-theart, high-tech information and financial services.
Date of update April 21, 2010
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Cultural cluster
Developing Economic Clusters of Cultural Companies : this is the raison d’être of the European Ecce project (www.connectedcreatives.eu). It brings together 7 urban areas from across Europe, with Nantes taking the lead. This commitment is producing the federation in the field of cultural and creative channels (teaching and research centres and economic clusters) linked to the île de Nantes major urban project. It will constitute a dynamic and attractive centre of excellence with international influence.
