In 2012, many UK business leaders will be focusing on ways to increase profitability, and there are many factors which they will need to take into consideration. One of the most important aspects, some might even say THE most important, is the location of the company’s main premises. If a commercial enterprise is in the wrong part of the country, it can lead to economic disaster.

Making the switch to a new town or city, or even to a completely different region, isn’t an easy decision to make, of course, and nor should it be. Many organisations will commission in-depth feasibility studies before making any definite plans, because there is a whole host of issues which need to be looked at before signing on any dotted lines.

Go where the customers are

One of the more common reasons for relocation is simply to be closer to a customer base. A business may have started life in Lancashire, for example, but over the years it may have found an increasing number of customers have come from South Wales, so it may save transport and logistics costs by moving to a location in or near Cardiff, perhaps even thinking of rent office Cardiff ?

In recent years, the increasing importance of the Internet has seen many companies switch at least part of their business attention to web-based selling, negating some of the need for expensive high street locations.

In such cases, the deciding factor in choosing a particular premises is likely to be the convenience of transfer networks rather than the amount of human traffic that passes by the front door on a daily basis.

All roads lead to the Midlands

In the UK, the Midlands has become something of a specialist area for distribution centres. Many blue chip organisations have opened depots in the region, purely because the cost of transportation can be kept to manageable levels. Towns and cities such as Coventry, Birmingham, Corby, Leicester and Nottingham are proving popular, and with more and more retailers establishing themselves on the Internet the trend is likely to continue.

Needless to say, many companies have regional bases which they plan to continue to use, from Aberdeen in the north-east to Redruth in the south-west, but there’s no denying the inevitable pull of the Midlands.

In the same way that the City of London is the natural home of the major financial institutions of the UK and of some around the world, the centre of England looks likely to be a major player in the distribution world for many years to come.