Leicesterruns on a handful of strong industries. If you’re job-hunting or weighing a move, here’s where the opportunities (and the big-name employers) are.
Top industries & employers
Textiles, garment manufacturing & fashion
Next plc's headquarters at Enderby, Shoezone, hundreds of small garment factories across the east of the city, the Fashion Technology Academy
Leicester has made clothes since the hosiery trade of the eighteenth century and still has one of the largest concentrations of garment manufacturing in Britain. The sector's labour conditions were the subject of national scrutiny from 2020 onwards, which produced a real compliance shake-out — worth knowing if you work in retail sourcing, employment law or supply-chain audit, because much of that work is now done from here.
Space, Earth observation & satellite data
Space Park Leicester, the National Space Centre, the University of Leicester's School of Physics and Astronomy, Airbus and Rolls-Royce partners on the park
Leicester's university has built instruments for space missions since the 1960s and Space Park Leicester, opened in 2021 next to the National Space Centre, put research, industry and manufacturing on one site. Between them they make Leicester the largest cluster of space and Earth-observation work in Britain outside the Harwell campus.
Food manufacturing & consumer brands
Walkers at Beaumont Leys, Samworth Brothers, Dunelm at Syston, Everards of Leicestershire
The Walkers factory at Beaumont Leys is one of the largest crisp plants in the world and Walkers was founded in Leicester as a butcher's shop in 1948. Samworth Brothers, which makes a very large share of Britain's supermarket sandwiches and pies, is headquartered in Leicester too — food manufacturing is a bigger employer here than most people outside it realise.
Health, life sciences & universities
University Hospitals of Leicester NHS Trust, the NIHR Leicester Biomedical Research Centre, the University of Leicester, De Montfort University
Genetic fingerprinting was invented at the University of Leicester by Sir Alec Jeffreys in September 1984, and the same department later identified Richard III's remains. Glenfield Hospital is a national centre for cardiac and respiratory medicine including ECMO, and the trust runs one of the largest teaching hospital groups in England across three sites.
Logistics & distribution
Magna Park at Lutterworth, East Midlands Gateway, DHL, Next's distribution operation, the M1/M69/A46 corridor
Leicestershire sits at the centre of the English motorway network, which is why Magna Park near Lutterworth became one of the largest dedicated distribution parks in Europe. If you work in supply chain, warehousing automation or transport planning, this is one of the densest markets in the country.
Sport, culture & the visitor economy
Leicester City FC at the King Power Stadium, Leicester Tigers at Welford Road, Curve theatre, the King Richard III Visitor Centre
Leicester City's 2015-16 Premier League title and the 2012 discovery of Richard III under a council car park did more for the city's profile than a decade of marketing. Leicester Tigers play at Welford Road, one of the oldest continuously used grounds in rugby union, and the two clubs between them fill a lot of the city's Saturday economy.
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