SOREDI to Host Tour for Prospective Companies, September 6 – 10, 2016

Medford OR – As part of the ongoing effort to recruit business from out of the region to relocate to Southern Oregon, SOREDI will host 3 or 4 outside companies on a tour of our area’s available industrial properties.  These companies represent the high-tech manufacturing, e-commerce, and aviation sectors. An additional company was unable to attend during these dates and scheduled a separate visit. All of the guests included on this site tour represent established, mature companies. Three of the four are looking to expand their existing operations by adding a manufacturing or distribution hub on the west coast.

Approximately twenty companies were initially invited. While five of them expressed interest in touring the region, ten additional companies contacted SOREDI to express their regrets, while staying in contact about the possibility of a future visit. All of the companies invited are actively engaged in the process of relocating or expanding their businesses and consider Southern Oregon a viable possibility. SOREDI uses a variety of means to create new contacts with companies including attending trade shows, courting site selection consultants and contracting with an outside lead generation firm.

In addition to touring the industrial sites available, visiting companies will also have the opportunity to meet with local business owners in similar or complementary industries and other key stakeholders. Representatives from Work Source Oregon local cities and both counties will join SOREDI and their guests for meals and leisure activities. Visiting companies can learn first-hand about the region’s business and workforce climate. These meals and leisure activities are provided courtesy of SOREDI’s generous sponsors, the City of Ashland, City of Grants Pass, City of Medford and Pacific Power.

“We believe that when a company visits the region and sees what it has to offer, they are more likely to keep us on their list of possibilities and eventually choose to move to Southern Oregon,” says SOREDI Executive Director, Colleen Padilla. “Just like when you are looking to buy a new home, you are unlikely to buy the house that you never toured.”

For the last five years, SOREDI has hosted a group of national site selectors to tour the region annually. A total of twenty site selection professionals have visited the region and provided their impressions. Their feedback has provided strategic insight and specific advice for marketing our region to the kind of companies that would be a good fit. This year, SOREDI’s Business Retention and Recruitment Committee approved the change to invite prospective companies directly, instead of site selection consultants.

About SOREDI: SOREDI is a private, membership-based, non-profit organization, governed by a board of directors. Its six-person staff is charged with local business expansion and new business recruitment efforts, financial assistance to start-up companies through its business loan fund, and management of Enterprise Zones in Jackson and Josephine Counties. The agency was formed as a regional economic development agency in 1987. Learn more at https://soredi.org.