Ards and North Down business support

Ards and North Down Borough Council is an excellent location for doing business.

Local infrastructure

Ards and North Down businesses benefit from direct access to markets across the world.

There is high quality road and rail links from the council area into Belfast and onto the economic corridor to Dublin.

Belfast City Airport is on the eastern council boundary, within the harbour estate within which the Port of Belfast is situated.

The council area has good road access into the European Union - find out more about cross-border trade support with InterTradeIreland.

Local workforce and business supply chains

There are around 163,659 residents in Ards and North Down.

There are 4,870 businesses operating in Ards and North Down, which is 6% of all businesses in Northern Ireland. The majority of the base is micro and small businesses:

• 90% micro (0-9 employees)
• 9% small (10-49 employees)
• 1% medium (50-249 employees)
• 0.3% large (250+ employees)

Some major business investors in the council area include Denroy Plastics, Echlinville Distillery, Mash Direct and Clandeboye Yoghurt. Service businesses make up the largest sector in Ards and North Down:

• 12% agriculture
• 12% construction
• 7% manufacturing
• 69% services

You can download an Invest NI council briefing on Ards and North Down (PDF, 3.36MB).