The City of Winterthur is located in the Zurich Canton less than 25 kilometres northeast of Zurich and around 15 kilometres east of Zurich Airport. According to Stadt Winterthur the city has a population in excess of 100,000 and is the sixth largest Swiss city and the second largest in the Canton. As part of the Zurich Canton, Winterthur is a major contributor to the countries GDP. The European Research Area (ERA) in its regional profile for the Zurich Canton state that the GDP for the Canton is nearly 20% of the country as a whole.

In the past the city’s economy was traditionally based around financial services however the Region Winterthur identifies manufacturing, high-tech and services sectors as the current make up of its economy. Additionally according to Region Winterthur, the cities council is dedicated to creating a business-friendly location. One such enterprise designed to give start up businesses as much help as possible is Technopark Winterthur and is connected to the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) sited in Winterthur. The Winterthur Region has some of the finest events, seminar and conference facilities in the country which includes an 800 year old castle.

The city is well placed for transport, as apart from Zurich Airport the city, as a once major part of the Swiss railway industry, has excellent rail connections to the rest of the country and beyond. The A1 Motorway which traverses the country east to west provides the city with first-rate access to Switzerland’s autobahn network as well as being a direct route to Geneva at the other end of the country. Winterthur is also making use of much of the land once occupied in its industrial past, an example being the Sulzer Industrial Park Stadtmitte, the once industrial site is being transformed to foster and build the types of modern business that are part of the 21st century.

Modern Winterthur is now home to a number of types of business that even 25 years ago did not exist in the way we now know them; the healthcare sector for instance is an area of which Region Winterthur see as a potentially strong area for growth along with mechatronics.

Stadt Winterthur states that over “50,000 people are employed in approximately 4,300 businesses”. The businesses within the region benefit from a highly educated local workforce

As with much of Switzerland, the region enjoys a high quality of living. For those in the region and those relocating to the area, whilst not the countries most obvious tourist location, provides living conditions that many cities in Europe alone, envy. The cities green spaces and the easy access to the surrounding countryside and forests along with its cultural heritage make it a city that does not feel like a city.