Asia Site Selection & Location Analysis
Atlas' role is not to find your site. It is to eliminate every site, country and region that doesn't fit your critical location factors (CLFs), until only the finalists remain, that are an exact CLF match, with no compromise.
Your CLFs are must haves for an operation or facility to fulfil its business objectives.
We employ cold objectivity, rigorous process delivering validation that only boots on the ground can deliver.
A Defensible Decision From Ground Truth
Atlas' Site Selection and Location Analysis services are built on one objective: rationalizing and de-risking your site or geography decision with hard data, so your final choice can be defended at boardroom and stakeholder level.
Ground Truth And Ground Work
Our service is not a pure strategy exercise: For an actual site selection or location analysis, we coordinate your internal and external resources, engage stakeholders such as government approval and licensing bodies and boards of investment, and take you to the point of committing to a geography or opening negotiations for a plot or lease.
How Does It Work: Asia Site Selection - When You Have Decided Where You Should Operate
PHASE 1
Mobilize & Define CLFs
- Visit the client's HQ to see current facilities & operations in action
- Define facility & operations objectives, including for export or domestic supply
- Define the search area(s)
- Define & weight the overall CLFs, interviewing the client's heads of department (operations, HR, accounting, sales, legal, ESG) for their prioritization
- Confirm final CLFs, the absolute must-haves
- Confirm nice-to-have criteria, separate from the must-have CLFs
PHASE 2
Longlist & Screening
- Populate the full universe of available sites & screen against CLFs & objectives
- Eliminate non-aligned sites to reach the longlist
- Contact industrial park owners & landlords & list their capability claims
- Field visits to longlist locations to verify claims, eliminating any with false claims
- Interview current location tenants on site conditions (discreetly)
- In parallel: identify project parameters influencing real estate & investment incentives
- Deliverable: the site shortlist
PHASE 3
Detailed Due Diligence & Ranking
- Field visits to shortlisted locations
- In parallel: confirm licensing, permitting requirements & approval timelines
- Develop OPEX, CAPEX & P&L, then rate the shortlist
- Assess supply chain, logistics & labour availability at each site
- Analyze risk, revise ratings & re-rank the shortlist
- In parallel: solicit & analyze initial real estate & incentive offers
- Deliverable: the site finalist list
PHASE 4
Selection, Client Visit & Negotiation
- Recommend finalist sites with a defensible, data-driven rationale
- Coordinate client project team site visits
- Negotiate real estate & incentives with your preferred & backup locations
PHASE 5
Deliverable: A Final Site Decision
- A final site decision in 3 to 4 months, depending on objective
- 1 to 2 sites confirmed as fully aligned with your CLFs
- 2 to 3 backup sites
- A clear GO or NO GO on each, with the evidence behind it
- Support through real estate negotiations & contract terms, including landlord bottlenecks
PHASE 6
Optional: Construction & Engineering Project Management
- Manage your project management office in-country
- Coordinate contractors, suppliers & vendors
How Does It Work: Asia Location Analysis Benchmarking Countries for Final Site Selection
PHASE 1
Define Objective & CLFs
- Select candidate markets, one or more
- Visit the client's HQ to understand operations & strategic objectives
- Define the operations objective: manufacture for export or domestic supply, regional HQ, sales office, or service & engineering hub
- Define & weight critical location factors (CLFs)
- Deliverable: confirm the benchmarking focus
PHASE 2
Country-by-Country Benchmarking
- Benchmark each candidate country against your weighted CLFs
- Confirm viable sites exist in each country against CLFs & objective
- Market access, demand & growth outlook
- Regulatory environment, ownership rules & ease of doing business
- Accounting, financial, taxation & profit remittance frameworks
- Permitting & approvals process, complexity & timelines
- OPEX & CAPEX comparison
- Supply chain, logistics & labour availability
- FDI incentives & special economic zone benefits
PHASE 3
Comparative Analysis & Trade-Offs
- SEZ vs. non-SEZ location comparison
- Build vs. rent vs. acquire vs. greenfield
- Export & tariff implications: location of production vs. location of customer vs. conditions of substantial transformation
- Risk assessment & scenario comparison across the shortlisted countries
- Rank the countries against your objective & CLFs
PHASE 4
Deliverable: A GO or NO GO on Each Country
- A clear GO or NO GO on each candidate country, with a defensible, data-driven rationale for final site selection
- A robust risk assessment behind the recommendation
- Typically completed within 3 months, depending on objective
Objectives Asia Site Selection and Location Analysis Can Support
China Plus One
- Follow your OEM customers
- Follow your suppliers
- De-risk single-country concentration
Region-for-Region Strategy
- China-for-China localization
- Leverage India
- Leverage Southeast Asia
Greenfield Build-to-Suit
- Megasites
- Multi-process, regulated operations
Brownfield Pre-Built
- Sales, service & engineering hubs
- Light assembly
- Back office
- GCC (global capability centre)
Brownfield by Acquisition
- Asset only
- Asset & business
Add Capacity at Your Current Location
- R&D hub
- Sales, service & engineering hub
Supply Chain Availability
- Raw materials input & access
- Supplier density in target countries
- Single source risk mitigation & contingency
- Confirm supplier capacity ceilings
- Confirm ESG/CSR compliance
- Export, tariff, tax cost benchmarking
- Confirm supplier MOQ, lead times & payment terms
- Confirm logistics reliability & lead time variability
Regional Headquarters
- Centralize regional management & control
- Consolidate satellite offices
- Sub-regional or SEA hub
Logistics & Distribution
- Proximity to ports, airports & trade corridors
- Regional distribution & fulfilment hub
- Bonded warehousing & free trade zone access
- Last-mile reach into target markets
Supplier Base & Input Costs
- Local supplier density & availability
- Raw material & input cost indexing
- Reduce single-source & import dependency
- Proximity to your critical supply base
Labour Market Dynamics
- Skilled talent availability & depth
- Wage levels & cost benchmarking
- Workforce scalability & retention
- Labour law, unions & hiring flexibility
Ease of Doing Business
- Simple, fast company setup & licensing
- Transparent regulatory & legal environment
- Favourable tax & profit repatriation rules
- Government support & investor-friendly policy
ESG & CSR Alignment
- Access to renewable energy & green infrastructure
- Meet emissions & environmental compliance targets
- Ethical labour & responsible supply chain standards
- Community, social & governance fit
2500 Industrial Zones Screened For 1 Optimal Site
Case study: Site selection for $500m CAPEX battery materials processing plant - China plus one move
Really, just how rigorous is a site selection process?
This client's needs were big, 50 hectares big, with a search area spanning Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Malaysia and Japan. Screening produced a long list of 29, narrowed on detailed evaluation to 10, then to a shortlist of 5 on investment environment, infrastructure and ESG requirements. The finalist site selected was in Vietnam.
Key CLFs requiring rigorous validation:
- Longlisting a 50-hectare site to sit outside an industrial park
- Access to utilities, water, natural gas & electricity (water availability of 2.5 billion litres per annum)
- Port facility capacities & long term service commitment
- Availability & capacity of EPC contractors
- ESG: circular disposal through sale of process by-product, estimated at over 20,000 metric tonnes per annum
- Risk analysis: geopolitical, infrastructure & supply chain
- Government BOI investment-aftercare commitment
Schedule Introduction
Book a free Asia expansion or Asia market entry pathfinder call - your call will focus on:
- Your case understanding
- Goal challenges & feasibility
- Atlas approach
- High level overviews, sector & geography