With a mission to inform, empower, celebrate and advocate for British Columbia's current and aspiring business leaders, BCBusiness go behind the headlines and bring readers face to face with the key issues and people driving business in B.C.
Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/1498118
18 INVEST in BC 2 0 2 3 Official Publication of the BC Economic Development Association. In special partnership with BCBusiness. Bullish Outlook Growth is rotating back to B.C.'s metropolitan hub after a pandemic pause LOWER MAINLAND/SOUTHWEST ▷ Abbotsford ▷ Burnaby ▷ Chilliwack ▷ Coquitlam ▷ Delta ▷ Gibsons ▷ Hope ▷ Langley ▷ Lillooet ▷ Maple Ridge ▷ Mission ▷ New Westminster ▷ North Vancouver ▷ Pitt Meadows ▷ Port Moody ▷ Richmond ▷ Sechelt ▷ Squamish ▷ Surrey ▷ Vancouver ▷ West Vancouver ▷ Whistler SHARE OF B.C. POPULATION 61% W hen Red Bull went looking for a North American site to premix the ingredients used in its energy drinks, it left few stones unturned. For this, only the second such facility in the world after the company's headquarters in Austria, it needed a supply of high-quality agricultural produce, a workforce with a range of skills, competitive costs and the ability easily export to the 175 countries where it sells its products by land, sea and air. This year it settled on a 15-acre property within the Chilliwack Food and Beverage Processing Park in the eastern Fraser Valley. The company credited the location's proximity to the Port of Vancouver and the U.S. border in its decision. You'll hear different versions of the same reasoning why most businesses look to locate first in the Lower Mainland, in B.C.'s southwest. Metro Vancouver, the Fraser Valley and the Sea-to-Sky Corridor extending north account for most of the province's population, most of its consumer market and most of its economic output. Combining a large, diverse, well educated labour pool, easy access to world markets, fertile farmland and a mild climate, the Lower Mainland is the engine of B.C.'s economy. It's an internationally SECRET FORMULA: Red Bull (above) is joining Molson Coors Brewing (right) at the Chilliwack Food and Beverage Processing Park