Salmon Arm: Your Next Great Business Idea!

Photo © Courtesy of Salmon Arm

Salmon Arm: Your Next Great Business Idea!

Salmon Arm is located along the shores of breathtaking Shuswap Lake within the Secwepemc Nation Traditional Territory in British Columbia’s Southern Interior.

A fast-growing community, Salmon Arm is a “Small City with Big Ideas,” an established innovation hub with unmatched quality of place. In a spectacular setting, midway between Vancouver and Calgary, Salmon Arm is strategically situated on the key transportation crossroads of Hwy 1 and 97B. The city is the service centre for the surrounding areas, serving a regional population of approximately 60,000 residents. With a beautiful, four-season climate and excellent access to healthcare, education, sports, and outdoor recreation, Salmon Arm offers authentic community, various activities, real prosperity, and true opportunity. There’s room for you here! We know you’ll love it as much as we do.

Perhaps the most unique aspect of Salmon Arm’s economy is the cluster of technology companies operating within the City, primarily in Salmon Arm's dedicated Industrial Park, which is located just off Highway 97B, minutes from downtown. Technology companies and their workforce typically find their home in larger urban centres. However, Salmon Arm breaks the mould as it is home to many well-established tech businesses. With over 100 hightech and advanced manufacturing businesses successfully operating in our city, employing nearly 1,000 people, we’re far from a one-size-fits-all small economy.

The advanced manufacturing and technology sector is thriving in Salmon Arm and has an impressive variety of products and services, including software and app development, plastics products, recycled rubber products, robotics, retractable roll shutters, building products, alloys, advanced metal fabrication and machining, and aerospace products, just to name a few examples! The Salmon Arm Industrial Park, and the deep talent pool it is home to, is renowned for providing innovative solutions and high-quality products around the globe.

Further solidifying Salmon Arm’s position as a small city with big ideas, this community is home to Western Canada’s largest cluster of companies specializing in the design and manufacturing of automated sawmill equipment, led by businesses like USNR, Raptor Integration Inc., and Mill Tech Industries. Salmon Arm is also a recognized industry leader in forestry consulting services, with cutting-edge national companies like Forsite Consulting Services calling our city home.

Recognizing the city’s unique advanced manufacturing and technology cluster, the Salmon Arm Economic Development Society launched the Innovation Centre Powered by SASCU. This 10,000 sq ft facility located in our downtown core includes three distinct but linked services: a community makerspace, a business accelerator, and a co-working space. Home to 19 offices supporting numerous tech businesses, the Innovation Centre is our community's networking and business development hub.

"As a high-tech hub, we can pull resources from all over and bring them to this beautiful city and continue to grow and develop our tech sector and the businesses within it," said Lorelei Guidos of Raptor Integrated. This juxtaposition of serene natural beauty and dynamic opportunity in Salmon Arm has built a community that not only supports but fuels big ideas. You’ll find the perfect balance with the space to grow, the talent to thrive, and a lifestyle that is unmatched. Imagine a place where your morning commute is just minutes long, where nature isn’t a weekend getaway but an everyday experience. Here, the tranquillity of Shuswap Lake and the surrounding wilderness coexists with a thriving, innovative business sector, creating a unique environment to which skilled professionals and entrepreneurial newcomers are drawn to. Bring us your big idea, and we’ll provide the foundation to turn it into reality.

Check out some of the amazing businesses operating in our community that are doing business around the world! Visit SAEDS.ca/doingbusiness/hitech_overview to learn more. Contact SAEDS to talk business at edo@saeds.ca