Aude and Pyrénées-Orientales: these companies that have chosen to set up in Toulouse
Many companies in the Aude and Pyrénées-Orientales have decided to set up a branch in Toulouse or in the metropolitan area to develop or consolidate their activity.
Fourth largest urban area in France with more than 1.3 million inhabitants, Toulouse is the leading French metropolis for economic growth, demographic development, job creation and investment in R&D. Toulouse benefits from a prime location, near the Mediterranean, the Pyrenees and the Atlantic, which guarantees quality of life and clothing for talents. An attractiveness reinforced by the capacity of the capital of the young Occitanie region, to have numerous activity zones (industrial land, business real estate, etc.) and a real estate park dedicated to hosting industrial and tertiary activities supported by solid mobility infrastructures.
A pole of economic attractiveness
Moreover, the action of the Toulouse Métropole attractiveness agency will generate the arrival of around thirty companies and strategic start-ups (against 17 in 2020) in 2021 in the sectors of the future ( artificial intelligence, future mobility, green aeronautics, space) which should generate a thousand jobs within three years. In addition to this promising context, there are centers of excellence (aeronautics and space, health, digital, etc.) and research, training centers, grandes écoles, universities welcoming nearly 120,000 students, offering significant recruitment potential.
Moreover, the Toulouse urban area has attracted international groups like Airbus, Thalès, Safran… and their subcontractors, as well as the economic and demographic growth of the territory. The dynamism of the Toulouse urban area constitutes a pole of attractiveness and management for many companies, in particular from Aude and the Pyrénées-Orientales which have chosen to set up one or more agencies, an R&D pole …
A strategic location choice
The Toulouse metropolitan area is experiencing strong demographic growth, which is leading to development projects and residential, tertiary and industrial constructions that are conducive to attracting companies from the construction sector. The firm of expert surveyors from Perpignan Geopole has just passed the course by setting up in Toulouse, confirms Lionel Prats, associate director who also carried out part of his studies at Insa (engineering school) in Toulouse.
On the side of Solipac, another Perpignan group specializing in the trading and BtoB distribution (craftsmen and SMEs) of energy solutions, is present in Toulouse through two agencies (Toulouse Thibaud and L’Union) out of the group’s fourteen ( with headquarters).
Present in Aude in Carcassonne and Pomas as well as in Seine-Maritime, the Audois e-merchant Magma Group (known through the Rentreediscount.com, Noveus.eu and Cartablesandco.com brands) has chosen Toulouse for its fourth warehouse. This site occupied by the group since last spring covers 7,000 m² (storage capacity of up to 7,800 pallets), more than double the Carcassonne warehouse (4,000 m²).
Beyond the real estate aspect, Arnaud Laiter, CEO of the group confides in having guided his choice because “Toulouse represents an important employment pool” and meets the group’s recruitment needs. Toulouse has a pole dedicated to IoT (connected objects) which has created start-ups such as Flipr (connected object for swimming pools), whose R&D is located in Labège while the marketing, communication and administrative division is based in Perpignan.
Finally, another example on the Catalan side, Olivier Gelly, the founding director of the brand “committed” espadrilles Payote intends to take advantage of the influence of the Toulouse capital and the level of purchasing power that reigns there to offer its many references of espadrilles in a second store which is opening this month (November) in Toulouse, after that of Perpignan.
Read also :
From Trèbes, Contain Life extends its influence in the Toulouse sector
Some figures on Toulouse
• Economic growth: + 2.9% / year for GDP / inhabitant (Eurostat Urban Europe 2016)
• The metropolis of Toulouse has nearly 800,000 inhabitants while the city of approximately 500,000
• + 200,000 inhabitants in 10 years
• +70,000 employees in the private sector in 10 years
• Investment in R&D: € 5 billion / year, 4.8% of GDP (Eurostat 2013)