Meet Me in St. Louis: Work
Southwest's Spirit Magazine
June 2010
ST. LOUIS ALREADY BOASTS a bumper crop of Fortune 500 companies. Add to that a burgeoning BioBelt, with research and development in plant and medical sciences at an all-time high, and the area appears perfectly positioned for future growth.
What is the BioBelt? It's a concentration of area companies that develop and produce medicines and agricultural chemicals. The term also applies to manufacturers of organic chemicals and medical equipment.
While there are several life-sciences hubs across the country, St. Louis' claim to fame is its focus on plant sciences. Some 400 plant and medical-science businesses are based in the area, employing more than 17,500 people. And St. Louis has more plant-science Ph.D.s than anywhere else in the world, drawn here by the Missouri Botanical Garden and other leading research institutes.
The Donald Danforth Plant Science Center, the largest independent plant-sciences research institute in the world, partners with area companies such as Monsanto, an agricultural company, to improve human health through plant research. Areas of focus include enhancing the nutritional content of plants, increasing agricultural production to create a sustainable food supply, and reducing the use of pesticides, water, and fertilizer.
Emerging plant and life sciences companies can find a home at the recently opened BRDG Park (pronounced "Bridge," for Bio-Research and Development Growth). Located on the Danforth Center campus, BRDG Park will encompass 450,000 square feet upon completion. "Twelve years ago, the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center opened in St. Louis County across from Monsanto, and now it is the leading not-for-profit science center in the world," says Denny Coleman, president and CEO of the St. Louis County Economic Council.
While the region is quickly being recognized for its plant-sciences industry, St. Louis' economy doesn't depend on that alone. Nineteen Fortune 1000 companies are located in the area (10 of them in the Fortune 500), as are privately held Enterprise Rent-A-Car and UniGroup Inc., a transportation company. Other well-known companies with a presence in the St. Louis area include Energizer, Famous Footwear/Brown Shoe company, Nestlé Purina PetCare Company, Panera Bread, Drury Hotels, and MasterCard.
St. Louis is also home to information-technology supplier World Wide Technology Inc., one of the largest minority-owned privately held businesses in the U.S. And three large coal companies -- Arch Coal Inc., Patriot Coal, and Peabody Energy -- have their headquarters here, as do both Emerson Electric Co. and Boeing Defense, Space, and Security, which recently celebrated its 70th anniversary in St. Louis.
Perhaps the most famous company with roots in St. Louis is Anheuser-Busch InBev. Drive by the brewery south of downtown, and you'll smell the beer brewing. "St. Louis has been Anheuser-Busch's hometown since 1852, so we have a long and proud history here," says Dave Peacock, president of Anheuser-Busch Cos. Inc. "A-B is a unique blend of the old and the new, with the same beer recipes and brewing processes founded on tradition, and state-of-the-art technology and operations."
Many companies move here for the low cost of living and high quality of life. Graybar, an electrical, communications, and networking products distributor, moved its headquarters from New York to St. Louis in 1982 for the advantages of running a national company from a central location. "St. Louis continues to offer a decided cost advantage, just as it did in 1982," says Robert Reynolds Jr., Graybar chairman, president, and CEO, and chairman of the board of the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association (RCGA).
What's next for the Gateway to the West? Maybe the Gateway to the East. Looking to establish a major freight hub in the U.S., China has expressed interest in St. Louis, which sits within 500 miles of one-third of the U.S. population, boasts the second-largest inland port by trip-ton miles in the U.S., and has the nation's third-largest rail center.
"Why not us?" Coleman says. "Plus, goods manufactured here -- food products and machine parts, for instance -- could be shipped back to China."
Why not St. Louis? It appears that most major economic sectors are answering that with a big, "Yes, why not!"
