Polk County, Florida’s Best Place for Manufacturing

Polk County Offers Advantages to Advanced Manufacturers

As the nation celebrates National Manufacturing Month in October, Polk County celebrates those who have located here as it works to recruit other companies that use advanced technology to manufacture products safely and efficiently. 

Polk County has the ecosystem to support advanced/agile manufacturing, a growing, targeted sector of the area’s diversifying economy. Companies like Publix Super Markets, Inc., Florida Can Manufacturing, Ferrera Tooling, Peace River Citrus, Nucor Steel Florida and Assure Infusions have already invested millions of dollars to buy land, build infrastructure, upgrade equipment and hire locally trained employees and graduates of the county’s seven institutions of higher education. 

As we continue to develop this economic engine, which brings high-skill, high-wage jobs to the area, the Central Florida Development Council (CFDC) is playing a key leadership role to ensure we continue to provide the resources the advanced/agile manufacturing sector requires.  

Dive deeper and you will see why the county is the perfect place to expand or locate:  

• It has a welcoming pro-growth business environment. The CFDC works with other local economic development councils and Polk County government to attract businesses to the area, providing data and statistics, and, in some cases, incentives to locate here. 
• Polk County offers relatively inexpensive land, especially compared with Tampa and Orlando, and taxes that are the envy of many states in the nation. Beyond that, Florida does not have a state income tax, making the area more inviting to industry and employees alike.  
• It has a talent pipeline that graduates employees who can enter the workforce at any level. Whether they have gained a certificate at Polk State College’s Corporate College to become a certified production technician or an electrical engineering degree from Florida Polytechnic University, graduates are ready to enter the diverse fields available here today. 
• Its location in the center of the state, along the burgeoning high-tech Interstate 4 corridor, allows business and industry connectivity via roads, ports, airports and rail.  

Polk County and the CFDC work tirelessly to recruit companies that enhance the area in which we work, live and play. We want them to be environmentally friendly, like Florida Can Manufacturing, which is producing aluminum cans because people are trending away from disposable plastic bottles and toward cans that are easier to recycle and reuse and therefore more environmentally friendly. We want them to share our vision, offering high-wage jobs that benefit everyone. And we want them to be involved in our community. 

The CFDC has helped position Polk County as a high-tech hub for advanced/agile manufacturing, knowing that like-minded companies often fare better when they can take advantage of each other’s strengths. To find out more about the opportunities to introduce or expand your company here, contact Javier Marin at javier@cfdc.org.