Get to Know MO

Missouri – The Show Me State

Some customers we talk to regularly don’t realize that FairCom’s World Headquarters are located in Missouri. The “Show Me State” boasts many great attributes positioning companies with unique advantages not found elsewhere in the country. The Missouri Department of Economic Development provides extensive information on Missouri’s economic environment. Consider these:

• St. Louis, MO is the second leading financial services center in the US, with only NYC ahead.
• Some 32% of the $19 billion global animal health industry is based in the Kansas City area. It is the single largest concentration of animal health companies in the world.
• Third in the Small Business and Entrepreneurship Council’s Energy Cost Index 2010 — a measure of where the 50 states stand in terms of how major energy costs affect small businesses, individuals, and families.
• Fifth in the Tax Foundation’s Corporate Income Tax Index, based on the impact of each state’s principal tax on business activities within the state.
• Fifth lowest cost of living in the US.
• Seventh largest highway system in the US.
• Two of the largest rail terminals in the US.
• Over 1000 miles of waterways.
• Within 500 miles of Missouri resides:
  • 44% of the US population
  • 38% of US personal income
  • 45% of total US households
  • 46% of total US manufacturing

Interesting Missouri Facts

• Named after a native Indian tribe whose name meant “town of the large canoes.”
• The first state to free slaves.
• The Pony Express took off in St. Joseph, MO in 1860 with mail service to Sacramento, CA.
• Home to more than 95 wineries with an economic impact of greater than $700 million per year.
• Walt Disney hails from Marceline, MO and based Disneyland’s Main Street USA on that town.
• George Washington Carver, a Missouri resident and a former slave, discovered over 300 uses for peanuts.
• The 10 story Wainwright Building built in 1891 located in St. Louis is regarded as the world’s first skyscraper. It still stands.
• The ice cream cone was invented at the St. Louis World’s Fair in 1904.
• Aunt Jemima’s pancake flour was invented in St. Joseph, MO.
• Branson, MO located in the Ozark mountains, seats more at theaters than all of the Broadway district in NYC.

And What About Hometown Columbia, MO?

• Flagship campus of the University of Missouri System educating nearly 70,000 students over a four campus system. The University of Missouri Tigers boast nationally ranked men’s football and basketball teams for the 2009 and 2010 seasons.
• World’s first school of journalism opened at the University of Missouri, September 14, 1908.
• Sam Walton, founder of Wal-Mart and Sam’s Club, graduated from Hickman High School and the University of Missouri in Columbia.
• Home of NASCAR driver Carl Edwards.
• Home of singer and actress Jane Froman.
• Home of the American pianist and ragtime composer John William “Blind” Boone.
• Home of FairCom, Your favorite database technology!