Lynchburg Regional Key Industries
The Lynchburg Regional Business Alliance completed a target sector analysis with the assistance of Market Street Services during its five-year strategic planning process. The process of identifying target sectors in this report has been driven by the desire of the Alliance and its regional partners to identify companies that will find success in our region due to the availability of desired workforce, supply chain potential, and infrastructure needs. It is our priority to ensure your business will find success in our region.
The Lynchburg Region is best positioned for the following industries:
Food and Beverage
Food and Beverage Manufacturing firms are the source of $1.24 billion in exports annually in the Lynchburg Region. The region’s most noteworthy niche areas within this target are snack food manufacturing, nutritional products, and dairy product manufacturing. The region is competitive for business attraction because of its geographic location and close proximity to multiple major markets, its tremendous supply of water, and its favorable business tax climate for manufacturing.
Steel and Metals
The Lynchburg region has the second highest location quotient and employment levels in plate work manufacturing in the nation as well as high concentrations in power boiler and heat exchange manufacturing, iron foundries, fabricated structural metal manufacturing, and ball and roller bearing manufacturing. Central Virginia Community College is a strong asset in the region, offering training programs that support the sector: diplomas in machine tool and machine tool/quality, a certificate in machine shop, and a career services certificate in welding. Virginia’s “right-to-work” status provides evidence of the importance placed on this factor when analyzing the overall labor availability and costs of a region.
Nuclear Technology
The Nuclear Technology sector is anchored by BWX Technologies, Inc. and Framatome, and the many manufacturers and related firms that have located near them. Over the years, these companies have remained relevant and successful and have attracted businesses across the supply chain that have created a strong and viable economic cluster in the region. In 2018, Framatome announced the return of its North American headquarters to Lynchburg.
Because of Lynchburg’s overall strength in manufacturing and its long history in nuclear technology development, the region has strong concentrations of employment in several supportive occupations. The strongest of these are mechanical engineers (LQ 3.1), which are more than three times as heavily concentrated in the Lynchburg workforce than the average U.S. community.
Wireless Infrastructure and Communication
The wireless infrastructure and communications sector contains firms in the Lynchburg Region that leverage technology as their principal product or service. In modern times, radio communications, including wireless internet connections and cellular phones, have become an essential part of life. Lynchburg Region’s clear strength in the wireless infrastructure and communication field is producing the equipment needed to support technology and wireless communication, tied directly to its historical and significant strengths in manufacturing. There are nine related subsectors with location quotients higher than 2.0. These subsectors combined employ over 1,400 workers.
Financial and Business Support Services
The financial and business support sector is composed of insurance firms, business support services companies, and professional service providers. Telemarketing bureaus and other contact centers (NAICS: 561422) grew by 24 percent since 2010 at the national level, and the growth was even greater in Virginia at 28 percent. Lynchburg currently has approximately 5,400 jobs related to financial and business support services, and the region has existing strengths in direct mail advertising (LQ 16.7), other insurance related activities (LQ 7.2), and insurance agencies and brokerages (LQ 2.2). These subsectors alone have 2,700 employees and are an important base of employment for the region.
The full target industry report and key industry brochures are available to download on this page.
