Richmond's economy is primarily driven by law, finance, and government with several notable legal and banking firms, as well as federal, state, and local governmental agenices, located in the downtown area.
There are nine Fortune 500 companies located in the greater Richmond area, including electric utility Dominion Resources; consumer electronics retailer Circuit City, which also spun off the used car retailer CarMax, now a separate Fortune 500 company; Performance Food Group; LandAmerica Financial Group; Owens & Minor; Brink's Company, a security services outfit; Genworth Financial, the former insurance arm of GE and the recently relocated MeadWestvaco, a leading global producer of packaging, coated and specialty papers, consumer and office products and specialty chemicals. Only five metro areas in the US have more Fortune 500 company headquarters than the Richmond area.
Other Fortune 500 companies, while not headquartered in the area, include Wachovia Securities headquarters, SunTrust Banks Incorporated, Capital One Financial Corporation, and McKesson. Philip Morris USA (a division of Altria Group), one of the world's largest food, beverage, and tobacco companies, maintains their corporate headquarters in Henrico County just outside the city, and has several other facilities in the area. Universal Corporation has its corporate headquarters in Richmond as well. Capital One and Phillip Morris USA are two of the largest private Richmond-area employers.
Richmond is also home to the rapidly developing Virginia BioTechnology Research Park, which opened in 1995 as an incubator facility for biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies. Once fully developed in the next five to 10 years, park officials expect the site to employ roughly 3,000 scientists, technicians and engineers.
Richmond is also the home of the Ukrop's Super Market, a regional, family-owned chain of supermarkets, known for its remarkable customer service and friendly employees, as well as its closed-on-Sundays and no-alcohol-on-the-shelves policies. Ukrops is a high-profile sponsor of community events like the Monument Avenue 10K, Easter on Parade, and the Ukrop's Christmas Parade. |