Hamburg top spot for world market leaders, city ranking finds

5 March 2021

Study by "Die Deutsche Wirtschaft" portal

Most of the Germany-based global market leaders are in Hamburg, according to the latest "Standortranking Deutschland" conducted by "Die Deutsche Wirtschaft" (DDW) and published Monday (March 1, 2021). Hamburg tops the rank with 33 world market leaders followed by Munich and Berlin, DDW said. Examples are Montblanc and Gebr. Heinemann. Hamburg is also Germany’s most popular location for top SMEs including Eppendorf and Engel & Völkers. DDW counted a total of 349 strong SMEs in Hamburg well ahead of both Berlin (240) and Munich (204). Hamburg also secured top positions in other categories.

Hamburg tops future markets segment

The Neumann Kaffee Gruppe and the mineral oil company Marquard & Bahls, both of which are based in Hamburg, are other global leaders in their segment. Furthermore, Hamburg also leads the top ten list of cities in terms of forward-looking markets with 166 companies ahead of Berlin (153) and Munich (152). This includes trending fields and growth segments such as New Work (New Work SE, operator of the Xing career network) or Cyber Crime Protection (Dermalog Identification Systems, based in Hamburg-Harvestehude). Hamburg is also popular among foreign investors and companies, the study found with 504 foreign-owned companies. Airbus (Germany/France), Vattenfall (Sweden) and Esso (U.S.) are among the biggest foreign companies in Hamburg.

About the location ranking

A total of 3,572 cities were analysed for the "Standortranking Deutschland", according to DDW. The rankings in the individual categories i.e. world market leaders, future markets, etc. are based on DDW company databases and individual rankings, including the cumulative total turnover, the number of jobs in the respective companies. Individual ratings by entrepreneurs, managers and employees are also included.

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