Liverpool City of Culture– half way in

Way back in January, I talked about how deserved Liverpool was in winning the European City of Culture accolade but that they cannot assume that sales and profitability would increase simply because the city had received this international recognition.

Far from being a doom and gloom merchant I felt that it was a fantastic opportunity to identify any business prospects that arise from the accolade and review their organisations ability to take advantage of them. But how has Liverpool faired in the intervening period?

Well the major complicating factor is of course the economic downturn. Timing wasn’t great there and has realistically dampened the economic growth of the city in certain sectors like construction. However in the service sector it is more of a mixed bag. Korova, the company that owns high profile bars like babycream has gone into administration. Several restaurants have shut only recently. However restaurant firms like Yo Sushi! and Wagawama are announcing openings, making that a dozen new eateries that will be throwing their doors open before the end of the year.

The 2008 European Capital of Culture was placed third out of 72 major European cities, behind only Berlin and Stockholm, for its brand utilisation – the measure of how well the city is selling itself compared with its actual assets. The report singles out Liverpool as being the only city to have a strong image without, in its view, strong assets to support it. It was ranked 66th out of 72 cities for its assets – behind cities such as Belgrade and Bremen – but was in 26th place for its brand strength. My belief is that the huge infrastructure improvements seen via the city of culture will counter some of this lack in infrastructure, like transportation.

There is even disagreement between Liverpool accountancy firms and the Chamber of Commerce regarding whether or not the city will actually go into recession or not. The main source of disagreement was whether local factors like the activity seen via the City of Culture and the growing base of technology and innovation based businesses has had an insulating effect or not.

Despite the fact that there has been a record number of visitors to Liverpool this year, there is no sign yet that a permanent transformation in Liverpool’s prospects is taking place. In order for this to happen there really has to be a more permanent investment flow in to the city. Investment must be targeted at improving the overall appeal of Liverpool to businesses and the consumer on a permanent basis. Much like what happened (and is still happening) in Manchester.  That means a long hard think about what Liverpool is good at, what it can offer consumers that is different and why businesses should locate there on a permanent basis.