Industry News

Sleepy county town Ipswich has woken up to new technology

(timesonline) - Ipswich might be thought of as a sleepy East Anglian backwater, but businesses in the town, upbeat about the future despite the recession, are determined to change all that.

Whereas comparable towns have been hit hard by their exposure to heavier industry, Ipswich’s more diverse economic make-up has allowed it to avoid the worst of the economic downturn. On top of that, the town is being transformed from a stodgy rural county town into a more dynamic destination for business.

Momentum has come from regeneration of its historic docks and waterfront, the opening of its first university and the appetite of local leaders to incubate modern businesses. However, the town – population 121,000 – is not immune to hard times. A large section of the town centre is neglected, short of investment and struggling to find a key flagship tenant. Other parts are littered with empty shop units and not all the new flats are full, with developers cutting prices aggressively to little effect.

Ipswich has avoided any huge job cuts, with its biggest businesses holding firm. However, like many towns across the country, jobs have gone at troubled retailers such as Adams, Woolworths and Zavvi. Insurance groups are among Ipswich’s largest employers, and it is home to important bases for Axa and Willis, as well as the headquarters of Suffolk Life, the local pensions specialist. Transport and logistics are key industries, with Felixstowe, one of Europe’s largest container ports, only a few miles up the Orwell estuary, businesses that want to set up a base in the area are drawn to Ipswich.

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