Spearheads
Agro
The south-east of the Netherlands is the country’s second horticultural area, and together with the German border region it is Europe’s largest horticultural area. Venlo and its surrounding area are the focal point of the region.
Horticulture in Venlo is surrounded by a network of related companies, organizations and institutes that are active in the supply chain, processing, packaging, trading, transport & agrologistics. A large part of these companies are located in the Fresh Park Venlo agrofood business park.
To further strengthen the economic interests of the agrofood sector, Venlo actively supports innovative and knowledge-intensive companies. This promotes collaboration and synergies between business organizations (in all sectors), education, research and government.
Brightlands Campus Greenpark Venlo will play a key role in these developments: acting as an incubator, laboratory and testbed for new ideas and developments in the agrofood sector.
Manufacturing
Measured by the number of people employed in industry out of the total working population, Venlo takes fifth place out of the fifty largest towns and cities in the Netherlands. And as far as knowledge-intensive industries are concerned, Venlo holds an even stronger position with the No. 2 place!
The most important and best known knowledge-intensive company in Venlo is Canon Production Printing. It has its own campus in Venlo-North, with an extensive R&D center with hundreds of highly educated specialists. Other knowledge-intensive companies in Venlo operate in areas such as turbine technology, coatings and coating systems, machine and equipment building, glass and many others.
Logistics
Venlo has excellent infrastructure with:
- highway links in all directions
- good rail links: the most important railway line linking Rotterdam and the German hinterland – the ‘Brabant route’ – runs through Venlo
- a port on the river Meuse, with a container terminal for inland shipping
- a rail container terminal.
That’s why Venlo is the biggest inland terminal in the Netherlands.
Venlo is the leading inland port – or ‘extended gateway’ – for Rotterdam, Antwerp and Amsterdam Schiphol Airport. Huge volumes of goods find their way via Venlo to the Central European hinterland. This makes Venlo Europe’s most important growth region in terms of logistics.
The ideal location and the excellent accessibility are all unique advantages of Venlo. Even more important is the fact that the required knowledge and expertise for efficient management of goods flows are available here. As well as that, Venlo offers all the required supporting services, from customs facilities to logistics education right up to graduate level.
Supply Chain Valley is a collaboration of companies, knowledge institutions, and public authorities in the North Limburg region and Euroregion, which work closely on projects in the areas of sustainability, the labour market, energy transition, digitalisation, innovation, infrastructure and mobility. The overall guiding strategy is always the same: we can tackle certain themes more effectively together than alone!
Retail
Venlo is a real shopping city. The friendly, historical inner city draws many visitors from the city itself, but also from the surrounding region and the German hinterland. You’ll find thousands of tourists and shoppers in the city at weekends and on the German public holidays, all of them helping to create a real international atmosphere. In recent years Venlo has made big investments in its inner city. The Maasboulevard has created a modern extension of the shopping area and a new route for visitors to follow. The Maaspoort theater and congress center, the Grenswerk popular music venue and the varied selection of restaurants, cafés and bars offer ample choice of entertainment and catering alternatives. Numerous events complete Venlo’s active and lively city center scene.
If you’re interested in all the advantages that Venlo has to offer, and if you’re thinking of locating your company’s operations in Venlo, then don’t hesitate to contact us.