Price Competitiveness, Customer Orientation and Specialisation as Success Factors

An infrastructure network typically has synergies that are generated through the existing infrastructure and the services available for the companies located there. For some customers, it is important that the services can be bundled by the infrastructure company to form complete packages (full-service) so that producers have only one main contact partner. Combining services reduces interfaces and management expense for the customer. But the decisive factor for the success is the price of services and the customer orientation. Competitive prices are necessary, because industrial park operators compete with external service providers on many of their services, and tend to position themselves increasingly on the market outside the industrial park.

Success factors for industrial parks from the customers viewpoint

Source: FESTEL CAPITAL - market study

In the future, chemical parks will continue to specialise as pure chemical parks (only pure chemical companies), industrial parks with a focus on the chemical industry (chemical companies and related operations), and mixed trade parks (only chemical-related operations). The drivers for specialisation are the high overhead costs in pure chemical parks (cost-intensive infrastructure), statutory conditions (licenses, environmental requirements) and acceptance by the local community. Only the chemical companies that, by virtue of their production processes, have a complex infrastructure or, because of legal requirements must provide certain services, will be prepared to carry the overhead costs associated with a chemical park over the long term. This is why primarily chemical and chemical-related companies will continue to locate in pure chemical parks in the future. Other industrial operations that do not need works security or a works fire department, for example, are sometimes located on the periphery outside the park premises. Some industrial park operators whose sites are positioned based on the production network will exclude companies that do not fit into the network from the outset. On the other hand, to fulfil their growth targets, which were defined for thinning out fixed costs and the realisation of scaling and network synergies, some industrial parks are increasingly acquiring customers outside their traditional sphere of activities. A good example for this strategy is the industrial park Oberbruch, which was able to win a furniture factory and fuel cell producer as new customers for the industrial park.

Besides a competitive cost position the correct positioning is one of the key success factors for industrial parks. Many industrial parks position themselves through product-oriented specialisation or by focusing on production strengths in the sense of the existing integrated production network of the companies that operate at the site. Good examples are the Bayer Chemical Parks in Leverkusen, Dormagen and Uerdingen as well as InfraLeuna. The key aspects of this focus are the cost advantages of an efficient network structure (especially with regard to the logistics of dangerous or hard-to-transport substances).

Industrial parks also establish an end-user or industry-oriented specialisation aligned to customers located near the site. The main goal of this type of positioning is to achieve as many scaling and networking effects on the production side as possible, in order to strengthen the network structure. An example for this positioning strategy is the ValuePark in Schkopau.

Size is an important factor for the success of this positioning strategy: the larger the industrial park, the easier it is to strengthen the network structure. To ensure their future existence, small industrial parks have to make themselves attractive through special partnerships or specialisation. Otherwise, they would have to open up to other industries, thereby changing into trade parks.