Companies continue to expand here in the Tampa Bay area. Business-friendly regulations, high-quality workforce, desirable business locations, good weather, affordable housing for employees, world-class airports and a premier cargo and cruise port — these are attracting companies to locate and expand here.
Here are the companies that have grown their operations here or have decided to expand here in Tampa Bay in the last months of 2015 and first months of 2016:
Cohesion
Cohesion is an IT consulting firm that has been on Inc. magazine’s list of the 5,000 fastest-growing companies in the U.S. two times. Founded in 1999, it has been providing IT consulting services to Fortune 1000 companies and has grown to seven offices and 250 employees.
Cohesion has moved its headquarters from Cincinnati, Ohio to Tampa and will hire 100 employees to provide consulting work in the health care, insurance and finance industries. It chose Tampa over other cities mainly because of the state and city’s business policies, skilled workforce, and low cost of living.
Gordon Food Services
Gordon is a Wisconsin-based supplier of food to restaurants and cafeterias. It also operates grocery stores. In 2010, it established verification operations in Plant City. Now, it plans to expand its Central Florida operations by enlarging its warehouse by 160,000 square feet and adding 100 jobs.
Integrity Express Logistics
This Cincinnati, Ohio-based family-owned freight brokerage company has launched a branch office in Tampa, employing 20 people, and committed to hire 50 more in the next several months.
Integrity Express brokers freight transportation for many products, from produce to timber and plastics. The owners spoke of the sense of warmth they felt in Tampa when they were looking for a place to expand their operations. Access to the Port Tampa Bay and the Tampa International Airport was also known as a significant factor in the location selection.
Entrepreneurs can learn from Integrity Express Logistics. The owners started their business in a basement, citing self-motivation as a powerful factor for their success.
SunView Software Inc.
This global software development company is expanding its Tampa operations by adding office space and adding 45 skilled highly-paid jobs. It provides information technology innovation to customers around the world in the fields of health care, energy, government, education and finance.
Just like other IT companies growing their operations in the Tampa Bay area, SunView also cite the region’s attractive business climate, desirable quality of life and availability of highly skilled IT workforce as major factors in the growing number of technology companies deciding to locate and expand in Tampa Bay.
Early in 2015, these were the companies that chose to expand in the Tampa area.