Business is booming for Prince George companies

The City of Prince George has released its 2018 Business Insights Report of local businesses and the results indicate the city is a “good or excellent place” to run a business.

The report summarizes and analyzes interviews conducted by City staff with 47 local business owners from a diverse range of employment sectors and representing companies of all sizes.

“87 per cent of the businesses we interviewed said that Prince George was a good or excellent place to do business,” said Manager of Economic Development, Mellissa Barcellos. “I think that’s accurate and is a strong endorsement for the local business climate.”

Some of the highlights of the report include:

• More than half of the interviewed companies indicate that they have increased their employment levels over the past three years – 22 per cent higher than in 2016.
• Two-thirds of companies said they expect an increase in full-time staff over the next three years.
• Nearly 60 per cent of companies reported that they have positions that are yet to be filled.
• Nearly two-thirds of companies said they were aware of trends, technologies, or other changes in their industry that will require new skills. Examples of some of these skills include social media, artificial intelligence, robotics, and smart technologies.
• More than two-thirds of companies are anticipating increases in sales over the next year.
• Three-quarters of companies said that the market of their product was growing.
• 64 per cent of companies said their market share was increasing – a substantial difference from 2016 when only six per cent of companies indicated this.
• One-third of businesses say they have plans to expand in the next three years.

“It’s going to be really important for local companies to focus on labour force, both retaining their employees but also finding new ones. There are so many massive projects going ahead in Northern British Columbia right now and that’s going to create competition to local business owners in terms of their employees,” said Barcellos. “Right now they should be planning ahead in terms of getting on top of that labour retention and growth so they can continue to grow their businesses.”

The report shows that businesses in the Northern Capital are feeling optimistic that their business climate will continue to improve five years from now, with 77 per cent of them sharing that stance – an improvement from 64 per cent in 2016.