The town famous for black pudding, the Neville brothers and its 500-year old market tops the inaugural Red Flag Alert Start-up Index with almost twice the rate of limited companies (29 per 1,000 people) launching in the district in 2017 compared to nearest rival Manchester (16 per 1,000 people).
Trafford came third with 12 people per 1,000 launching a new company in 2017.
33,112 limited companies were launched in Greater Manchester last year. So far, in 2018, 18,518 have been launched.
Mark Halstead, managing director of Red Flag Alert, the Manchester-based business intelligence service, which produced the index, said:
“Bury is leaps and bounds ahead of any other district in Greater Manchester when it comes to the rate of new companies being launched in 2017. It’s Bury Means Business campaign clearly had an impact with people who wanted to start their own company.
“Manchester city centre still remains attractive as a location to register a new limited company, which is no surprise to us as the city continues to be an international hub for many sectors including FinTech and professional services firms.
“Seeing Wigan at the foot of the table will be a blow to the local council but not entirely unexpected for those who saw the council’s bizarre Zoltar ‘fortune teller’ campaign launched in 2016 to drum up business in the town. On the basis of our research this campaign failed to inspire people to launch their own company in Wigan.”
3 key reasons why Bury is good for business:
1) Transport links: the town is handy on the M60 for the airport, Metrolink and just a ten-minute ride into Manchester City Centre.
2) Entrepreneurial heritage: Bury’s famous market was established more than 500 years ago and it has a strong trading culture.
3) Skills: Bury’s residents are proportionally more highly qualified than residents across the region and the UK (Nomis 2016).
Red Flag Alert Start-up Index
Greater Manchester
| COUNCIL | STARTUPS | POPULATION (ONS 2017) | RATE OF START-UPS PER 1,000 | POSITION |
| BURY | 5644 | 189,628 | 29.76 | 1 |
| MANCHESTER | 8816 | 545,501 | 16.16 | 2 |
| TRAFFORD | 2998 | 235,493 | 12.73 | 3 |
| ROCHDALE | 2453 | 218,459 | 11.22 | 4 |
| BOLTON | 3065 | 284,813 | 10.76 | 5 |
| SALFORD | 2648 | 251,332 | 10.53 | 6 |
| STOCKPORT | 2797 | 291,045 | 9.61 | 7 |
| OLDHAM | 1656 | 233,759 | 7.08 | 8 |
| TAMESIDE | 1381 | 224,199 | 5.65 | 9 |
| WIGAN | 1654 | 324,650 | 5.09 | 10 |
For more information on entrepreneurial hotspots, read our article on the most entrepreneurial area outside of London.