Chester, UK

What Chester is made of: the communities whose institutions are here, the sectors its 21,047 businesses sit in, the franchises already on the ground, and the services a newcomer could start.

21,047 businesses on file · 132 trades · 117 sectors · registry population 92,760 · built from geonet.manchester on 2026-11-07

Businesses21,047
100% carry coordinates
Specialised in8
trades above the national pattern
Places of worship156
Franchise brands95
already operating here

Visiting rather than moving? The free guidebook for Chester → — the free guidebook for this region: why go, what to see, what is open when it rains.

1

The local economy

What the business base is made of, what it is specialised in against the national pattern, and what that mix implies. This is the part a development office would read first.

Composition, not health. geonet records what trades exist and where; it does not record formation, closure, employment or revenue, so none of those appear here. What makes this economics rather than a directory is the NAICS coding: it lets the local mix be read against the BLS survival curves and against the 323 industry groups this research has screened.

The two biggest markets here

Every industry group on this page links through to its NAICS page, and to the screened market report where this research has one — that is what the trait-to-NAICS coding buys.

Business density226.9
businesses per 1,000 residents, against the registry population of 92,760
Breadth of the base339
broad — 97 industry groups, top three 22.3%
Survival the mix implies56.4%
at five years, against 51.4% for all private establishments
Coded to NAICS19%
of which 71.9% unambiguous

What this city is specialised in

Location quotient is this city's share of a trade divided by the same share across 2 UK metro tables. Above 1.25 is the conventional threshold for a local specialisation.

Thin against the national pattern

Common trades that are under-represented here. For someone deciding what to open, this is the more useful half of the table — though a gap can mean unmet demand or a market that does not work here, and this does not tell you which.

The base against the entry screen

Businesses by the entry signal of the industry group they sit in, from the /markets screen. A large "structure decides" share means most local trades are ones where being better than the incumbent does not by itself win. A trade is matched to the screened record at whatever level the research wrote it — the same code, a broader one, or a narrower one. Where a group holds several screened sub-markets the count is shown, because no single one of them speaks for the whole group.

Enter
19.3%
772 businesses
Caution
58.7%
2,347 businesses
Structure decides
21.9%
877 businesses
Not screened
0%
0 businesses

How to read the survival figure

Each sector's five-year establishment survival rate, weighted by how many of this city's businesses sit in that sector. It is a property of the MIX, not of these businesses — it says what survival this composition would imply at US private-sector rates, because no Canadian equivalent series exists.

Weighted over 99.6% of the coded base — public administration carries no curve. Source: Business Employment Dynamics — Table 7, Survival of private sector establishments by opening year, US Bureau of Labor Statistics.

And what it does not measure

A "mixed" trait is one that genuinely spans codes — "computers" covers systems design, repair and supply. The clear share is how much of this reading rests on unambiguous coding. Business density also reflects how completely the directory covers a place, not only how many businesses are in it — so it compares poorly between a city the register knows well and one it does not.

2

Who lives here, and who the city is for

The census: the only figures on this page that count people rather than businesses, and the three cohort readings they make possible.

No census subdivision is mapped for uk-chester in local/census-map.json, so this page carries no census figures. The mapping is kept explicit because Canada has several places called London, Toronto and Kelowna, and attaching the wrong one would put another city's demographics on this page.

3

The communities the register shows

A community appears in the business register before it appears in prose — a national church, a society, a credit union, a newspaper. Those are counted as institutions, and they are what suggests residents. A restaurant serving a cuisine is counted separately as trade, because every city has those and they say nothing about who lives nearby. The ranking is by institutions.

CommunityInstitutions WorshipTrade Where it shows
Islamic 6 1 8
Sunni Muslim Association · Central Mosque · Muslim Sports Association
Chinese 2 2 28
trade on Faulkner Street (2)
Manchester Chinese Alliance Church · Chinese Alliance Churches Union
Jewish 2 1 14
trade on Jacksons Row (2)
Jewish Representative Council of Greater Mancheste · Jewish Housing Association
Irish 1 — 12
trade on Queens Road (2)
Irish Association Social Club
South Asian 1 — 11
trade on Stockport Road (2)
Sikh Association Manchester
French 1 — 11
Alliance Francaise French Cultural Delegation
Polish 1 1 6
Polish Roman Catholic Church
Dutch — — 11
trade on Hadfield St (2)
Italian — — 10
trade on Piccadilly (2)
Swiss — — 9
Scottish — — 9
Caribbean — — 8
trade on Great Western Street (2)
Thai — — 7
Japanese — — 3
Spanish-speaking — — 3
Turkish — — 3
Czech — — 2
Arabic-speaking — — 2
Somali — — 2
Korean — — 1
Vietnamese — — 1
Lithuanian — — 1
Norwegian — — 1
German — — 1
Armenian — — 1
Persian — — 1
Nigerian — — 1
Welsh — — 1
4

Where the communities are

Streets, not neighbourhood names. The data knows that Greek institutions sit on one street and Greek restaurants on another; it does not know the word "Greektown", so it does not use it.

Chinese

trade on Faulkner Street (2)

Jewish

trade on Jacksons Row (2)

Irish

trade on Queens Road (2)

South Asian

trade on Stockport Road (2)
5

What the city is made of

Every business on file, grouped by the sector it trades in. This is the economic-development view: where the 21,047 businesses actually are, and the specific trades inside each sector.

SectorBusinesses ShareWhat is in it
advertising 470 2.2%
Construction 444 2.1% plumbing (150) · machinery (65) · roofing (57) · painting (47) · carpet (31) · heating and cooling (29) · flooring (19) · electrician (18)
Living 442 2.1% place of worship (156) · furniture (86) · cleaning (73) · fire safety (40) · appliances (38) · property (21) · swimming pools (7) · veterinary (6)
Dining 405 1.9% restaurant (314) · pizza (61) · diner (12) · fast food (9) · pubs (7) · greenhouse (1) · steakhouse (1)
Business 394 1.9% accounting (186) · association (108) · consulting (46) · auction (18) · government (13) · foundation (9) · vending (6) · cemetary (6)
Education 356 1.7% school (292) · library (53) · garden (11)
Retail 331 1.6% flowers (117) · photography (64) · jeweler (62) · antiques (36) · gifts (19) · pet supply (18) · department store (7) · discount store (4)
Travel 274 1.3% travel agent (125) · hotel (120) · airline (18) · parking (7) · motel (3) · bnb (1)
legal 249 1.2%
cafes 231 1.1%
Food 177 0.8% baker (65) · catering (58) · grocer (41) · ice cream (7) · fruit (5) · seafood (1)
beautysalons 167 0.8%
Finance 159 0.8% bank (73) · insurance (45) · mortgage (33) · loans (7) · bankruptcy (1)
engineer 157 0.7% landscaping (1)
construction 153 0.7%
housewares 143 0.7% fruit (1)
Beauty 142 0.7% dentist (124) · hair stylist (18)
Media 120 0.6% advertising (67) · signs (52) · books (1)
taxis 114 0.5%
booksmusic 105 0.5%
6

The franchises already here

Brands from a register of 2,024 franchise systems, matched into this city by name. A high count is a signal in both directions: the territory works, and it may be taken.

51 of these brands are a single common word — Metro, Avenue, Budget — so their counts include businesses that merely share the word. They are marked rather than dropped.

BrandCategory HereWorldwide
Royal Bank bank 17 —
St. John retail 14 —
Royal Mail post 11 14,300
Pizza Hut pizza 9 10,000
Whittard of Chelsea retail 8 —
Burger King fastfood 6 11,000
Bargain Shop retail 5 165
Salvation Army retail 5 —
Thomas Cook travel 5 700
Flight Centre travel 4 1,500
Costa Coffee coffee 3 755
Holiday Inn businesshotel 3 —
The Body Shop retail 3 —
Allied Irish Bank bank 2 —
Comfort Inn familyhotel 2 —
Disney Store retail 2 —
Enterprise Rent A Car car 2 5,400
Harvey Nichols retail 2 10
Hertz Rent A Car car 2 7,000
La Senza lingerie 2 —
Blockbuster Video video 1 5,900
Carlson Wagonlit Travel travel 1 4,300
Cartridge World retail 1 1,400
David Jones retail 1 37
Edwin Watts Golf retail 1 60
Grosvenor Casinos entertainment 1 —
Hard Rock Cafe food 1 140
Harvest Foods supermarket 1 33
Hollywood Bowl entertainment 1 24
House of Fraser retail 1 —
Jack in the Box fastfood 1 2,079
Kurt Geiger retail 1 —
Lands' End retail 1 19
Laura Ashley retail 1 —
Manchu WOK fastfood 1 200
Max Mara retail 1 —
Nationwide Auto Centres auto 1 —
Rainforest Cafe food 1 —
Ryman the Stationer specialty 1 —
Signs Now specialty 1 —
Stop & Shop supermarket 1 360
Sunglass Hut retail 1 —
Thomas Pink retail 1 60
Tommy Hilfiger retail 1 122
Tesco name only retail 16 1,780
Limited name only retail 15 —
Burton name only retail 11 —
Dillons name only supermarket 8 18
Manor name only retail 8 —
Midas name only auto 6 1,800
Starbucks name only coffee 6 3,500
Coach name only luggage 5 —
Kingfisher name only home 5 680
Somerfield name only supermarket 5 1,132
YMCA name only fitness 5 —
ASDA name only supermarket 4 243
Champion name only supermarket 4 1,000
Hallmark name only greetingcards 4 5,600
Michaels name only retail 4 805
Renaissance name only upscalehotel 4 —
Blackwell name only book 3 6
Europcar name only car 3 2,825
Greyhound name only travel 3 —
HSBC name only bank 3 —
Londis name only supermarket 3 2,100
Progressive name only supermarket 3 150
Waterstones name only retail 3 193
Armani name only fashion 2 —
Farmfoods name only supermarket 2 300
Halfords name only retail 2 420
HomeBase locations name only retail 2 320
Honda name only car 2 —
Mothercare name only retail 2 —
Powells name only book 2 9
Raffles name only luxuryhotel 2 8
Roots name only retail 2 145
SuperCuts name only inc 2 2,000
Clarion name only businesshotel 1 —
Debenhams name only retail 1 126
FastFrame name only specialty 1 300
Lexus name only luxurycar 1 —
Makro name only home 1 33
MANGO name only retail 1 850
Michelin name only auto 1 —
Morrisons name only supermarket 1 368
Myer name only retail 1 60
Oilily name only retail 1 —
Papyrus name only retail 1 170
Primark name only retail 1 160
Radisson name only upscalehotel 1 —
Rockport name only retail 1 —
Safeway name only supermarket 1 1,767
Stitches name only retail 1 —
Toyota name only car 1 —
Volkswagen name only — 1 —
7

Real estate as a local trade

Four unrelated jobs share the name: selling existing homes, owning and letting them, managing them for someone else, and building new ones. For anyone weighing a move or a licence these are the counts — and the ownership question goes to /property, which answers it building by building.

Real estate is a local job market in its own right, and four unrelated trades get the same name. Counts are businesses filed under each trade in the register, which lists a brokerage once however many agents work there — so this measures firms, not licensees.

Selling homes

5312
4 firms · LQ 0.11

Offices of agents and brokers — the resale market, and the biggest single trade in most Canadian cities.

Named in the register

Owning and letting

5311
5 firms · LQ 1.09

Lessors of real estate: the buildings themselves, filed under the building rather than the owner.

Named in the register

Managing for owners

5313
21 firms · LQ 1.35

Property managers, who run buildings the landlord does not.

Named in the register
  • A and A Property Services — 8 Copson St, 20
  • A V Wilding Chester — 5 Kings Buildings; King Street
  • Active Properties — 28 Frodsham Street
  • Broadhurst Estates — 89 Windsor Rd, Prestwich
  • Bruntwood Estates — Trafford Ho, Chester Rd, Stretford
  • Ellesmere Centre — Bolton Rd, Worsley
  • G Smith — Sealand Farm; Sealand Road
  • General Commercial Financial Services — 441 Chorley Rd, Swinton
  • Maintenance U K — Spencer House; Benfield Park
  • Ockleston Bailey — 47 Watergate Rw
  • T I H Properties — Kingsfield Court; Chester Business Park
  • Waterworths — 1 Hunters Wlk Canal St
  • Wiltons Settled Estate — 6 School St, Radcliffe
  • Workman and Partners

Building new homes

2361
4 firms · LQ 0.91

Residential builders and the general contractors who work for them.

Named in the register
  • Diamond Windows and Joinery — 46 Wemyss Road; Blacan
  • Fred J ODonnell — 3 Church Lane; Hargrave
  • Home N Away — 41 Carnarvon St, M3
  • Motor Caravan Conversions Ltd Reimo — Peel La, 8

Financing it

5222
40 firms · LQ 1.18

Mortgage brokers and non-bank lenders.

Named in the register
  • Alpha Mortgages Services — 11 Overleigh Rd
  • Apple Mortgages Direct — 41 Hope St Road
  • B O S Shared Appreciation Mortgages Scotland L — Premier House; City Road
  • Backford Marketing — 11a Lower Bdge St
  • Blossom Loans — 1A Grey Friars
  • C and M Mortgage Services — 785 Stockport Road
  • Cavendish Ikin Mortgage Centre — 2 Cuppin Street
  • Creative Mortgage Solutions — 41 Hope Street
  • G M Finance Group — Suite 44 Redhill House; Hope Street
  • J Bradwell — 2 Upper Northgate Street
  • Mortgage Choices — Redhill House
  • Mortgage Reduction Strategies — 7 Hunters Walk
  • Specialist Mortgage Funding — 41 Hope Street
  • The Mortgage Advice Centre — Redhill House; 41 Hope Street

On "how many doors"

How many doors a landlord holds is not in any of this. The register files an apartment building under the building, not its owner, and carries no unit count; there is no open dataset of Canadian landlords by portfolio. Where this research has established ownership it is in the /property record for the city, building by building, which is a different and much slower exercise.

8

Work on the go, mobile services

The Ultimate 411 half of local: everything where the customer does not have to come to you. Each service opens a page on Ultimate 411 to request a quote or book a time.

A shop needs the customer to walk in. These 320 services do the opposite — the mobile mechanic, the mobile groomer, the bookkeeper, the junk haul — and they are the ones a person can start without a lease. 1 of them already match a trait filed in this city's register.

The 320 Service=1 rows in search.local: work on the go, mobile services, where the provider travels to the customer. "present" counts businesses already filed under that exact trait name; a blank is a coverage gap, not proof of absence, because the two vocabularies were built separately.

home services

Accessible Home Renovations Air Filtration & Purifier Installation Short-Term Rental Turnover Appliance Installation Artificial Turf Installation Babyproofing & Safety Installs Electric Baseboard Heater Installation Basement Renovation Bathroom Fan Replacement & Installation Bathroom Renovation BBQ Cleaning Blinds & Shutters Installation Cabinet Refacing Carpet & Upholstery Cleaning Carpet Installation Caulking & Sealing Ceiling Fan Installation Ceiling Design & Repair Central Vacuum Installation Countertop Installation Custom Closet Design & Installation Decorative Rock & Gravel Deep Cleaning Drain Cleaning Dryer Vent Cleaning & Hose Installation Drywall Repair Air Duct & Furnace Cleaning Electrical Inspection Electrical Panel & Breaker Upgrade Errand Running EV Charger Installation & Service Exterior Painting Faucet Installation Fence & Deck Staining Furnace & Air Conditioner Installation Furnace & AC Repair Furniture Assembly Garden Weeding & Maintenance Grocery Pickup & Delivery Gutter Cleaning Handyman (General Repairs) Hardwood Flooring Installation Hedge & Shrub Trimming Home Project Design Consultation House Cleaning House Sitting HVAC Tune-Up & Maintenance Insulation Installation Interior Painting Junk Removal & Dump Runs Kitchen Design Consultation Kitchen Renovation Laminate & Vinyl Flooring Installation Landscape Design & Planting Lawn Aeration & Seeding Lawn Leveling Lawn Mowing Fall Leaf Cleanup Light Fixture, Switch & Outlet Installation Material Take-off & Estimate Move-In / Move-Out Cleaning Moving Help (Labour Only) Moving with Truck Office Cleaning Outdoor Blinds & Shades Personal Shopper Picture & Mirror Hanging Pipe Insulation Plaster Wall Repair Pot Light Installation Pressure Washing Move Things Around the House Wiring Upgrade & Rewiring Driveway & Sidewalk Salting Shelving & Closet Organizer Installation Shower Valve Replacement Sink Installation Smart Camera & Doorbell Installation Smoke & CO Alarm Installation Snow Shovelling & Removal Sod Installation Lawn Sprinkler Installation Irrigation Repair & Maintenance Packing & Unpacking Sump Pump Installation & Replacement Smart Thermostat Installation Tile Installation Toilet Installation Toilet Repair Interior Trim & Baseboard Repair TV & Picture Mounting Wall & Ceiling Texturing Wall Panels & Accent Walls Wallpaper Installation & Removal Wardrobe Styling Water Damage Extraction Water Heater Installation (Tank & Tankless) Water Softener & Filtration Water Valve Replacement Weed Control Window AC Installation Window Cleaning Window Film Installation Spring & Fall Yard Cleanup
9

Schools and colleges

wander.schools is a post-secondary table — universities and colleges. K-12 public and private schools are not in it, and only 7 of its 1,686 rows carry coordinates, so these are listed and not mapped.

In the business register

Where schooling shows up as a business rather than an institution — which is where K-12, tutoring and childcare appear.

school 292daycare 6
10

Health and care

What a person moving a parent here would ask first. The register files clinics and pharmacies; it has no category for a hospital at all, so hospitals are matched by name and the limit is stated rather than hidden.

Medical clinics16
Pharmacies4
Dental practices124

Matched on the name "hospital"

  • Osteopathic Health Centre — 99 Cheyney Rd
  • Countess of Chester Hospital N H S Trust — Church Way
  • Countess of Chester Hospital N H S Trust — Liverpool Road
  • Lache Health Centre — Hawthorn Road
  • Grosvenor Nuffield Hospital — Wrexham Road
  • Chestergates Referral Hospital — Unit F/Telford Court
  • Alexandra Park Health Centre — Alexandra Pk Health Centre
  • Withington Hospital
  • Connect Physical Health Centre — 10 Lapwing La, M20
  • Galaxy Health Centre — 2 Elmsmere Road
  • Aluna Holistic Health Centre — 26 Lyndhurst Rd, 20
  • Harnham House Independent Hospital — 134 Palatine Road
  • Newton Heath Health Centre — 2 Old Church Street
  • Vac Hospital The — 285 Middleton Rd, 8
  • Hospital Broadcasting Service — Delauneys Rd, 8
  • Charlestown Road Health Centre — Charlestown Road
  • Chinese Traditional Health Centre — 3 Southgate, Urmston
  • Swinton Complementary Health Centre — 177 Moorside Rd, Swinton
  • Booth Hall Hospital — Charlestown Rd, 9
  • Body Wise Natural Health Centre — 16 Turner St, 4
  • Farmacia Urban Healing Natural Health Centre — 1 Exchange Square
  • Seymour Grove Health Centre — 70 Seymour Grove
  • PDSA Pet Aid Hospital — 7 Warwick Rd South
  • Northenden Health Centre — 489 Palatine Road
  • Wythenshawe Hospital — Southmoor Rd, 23
  • Meadowslea Hospital

geonet carries no 'hospital' trait, so these are matched on the business name. A distance-to-hospital figure needs a source that states hospital locations.

14

What this record cannot tell you

Named in full, because the gaps are the part most likely to be misread as an answer.

  • No census figures on this page: this region is not mapped to a census subdivision in local/census-map.json, so the community counts here are business-register institutions, which is a different measurement and cannot substitute for a population.
  • wander.schools is now readable, but it holds universities and colleges only and 1,679 of its 1,686 rows have no coordinates. K-12 public and private schools need a separate source — in Ontario the Ministry of Education school finder, in British Columbia the provincial school list. wander.citytowns, hotels and territories remain denied to the ru user.
  • No 'hospital' trait exists in geonet; distance to a hospital needs an external source such as StatCan's Open Database of Healthcare Facilities.
  • 0.3% of businesses here carry no coordinates, so a map or address lookup would miss them. Postal codes reach 100%.

Built from

  • geonet.manchester — the local business register
  • wander.regions — city name, population, metro
  • search.local — trait vocabulary and the come-to-you services
  • search.cozfranchises — 2,024 franchise brands