Sofia is identified as one of the best destinations for opening a manufacturing plant in Europe, according to the latest report by global property consultants Colliers International.
As much as accessibility matters for distribution-related activities, cost is typically viewed as one of the main determinants of location decisions in the manufacturing sector, which tends to be more labour intensive than logistics and distribution.
A higher weighting to the capacity of the local market to meet workforce requirements (measured as a combination of volume of workforce and unemployed) and to the regulatory environment is given by the researchers, as companies are more likely to be drawn to countries offering a higher degree of protection to their investment (which is typically higher in the case of manufacturing as opposed to logistics).
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the higher part of the table is dominated by cities in CEE and neighbouring countries to the east (e.g. Ukraine), with only six Western European cities featuring in the top-20.
Kiev occupies the highest spot in the ranking, followed by Istanbul, Bratislava, Upper Silesia (Katowice) and our capital Sofia in the top-5 manufacturing hubs.
You may read the whole report of Colliers International here