There's no doubt about it. When it comes to a company

relocation or expansion, building on a greenfield site is just plain sexy. Everything is shiny and fresh, and the future can't be anything but bright when it's showcased in a newly designed, built and furnished facility.

Moving or expanding your operations into an existing facility can be a welcome change, too. Breathing new life into time-worn buildings, or giving vacant warehouses a trendy facelift as your business moves in comes with its own joys, as well.

But sometimes neither of these two options makes the best business sense, for whatever reason. Sometimes, just staying where you are might be an option, even if it may not seem like the most glamorous course of action. In many instances, it offers the best solution when it comes to financial, logistical and labor considerations.

Here are three scenarios when making no move at all could prove to be the smartest move of all.

The Acquisition

After an acquisition, combining corporate cultures often tends to be one of the biggest challenges two merging companies can face. However, allowing the acquired company to continue operating at its present location can help ease the transition process.

Such was the case when software goliath Microsoft acquired North Dakota-born Great Plains Software in 2000.

Skeptics had their doubts when the two companies came together in what is remembered as the biggest hiring day in Microsoft history.

About 2,000 Great Plains employees came under Microsoft ownership in a stock purchase valued at about $1.1 billion.

While local development officials say Microsoft was "wide open" to the idea of moving the operations out west, nearer to the heart of its Redmond, Wash., headquarters campus, the company, renamed Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions, didn't go anywhere.

Onlookers and skeptics were amazed over time to see the companies blend operations so well; basically each continued to do what they did best, while complementing and enhancing each other's operations at the same time.

In the end, Microsoft Great Plains Business Solutions remained firmly planted on its Fargo, N.D., tract of pastoral land that is also home to a wheat field. And today, the company's employees there number more than 2,400.

The merging of the two companies is a shining example of how two companies can successfully join forces, according to Randy Forkner, vice president of Mission Viejo, Calif., -based Collins Computing, a Microsoft Great Plains reselling partner.

"The bottom line is that the acquisition was awesome," Forkner said. "They've taken the best of what Great Plains offers and combined it with Microsoft's corporate skills, research and development investment and global presence."

The Expansion

Webasto Roof Systems knew that an expansion plan was a non-negotiable necessity when capacity at its Lexington, Ky., plant began showing signs of reaching its limit.

It was October 1998 when the company first set up shop in Kentucky in Lexington United's Blue Grass Business Park.

Since that time, business for the automotive roof systems maker has been good as it serviced such customers as Ford, General Motors, DaimlerChrysler, Mazda and Toyota.

In May 2001, Webasto began searching around for a new place to build a second facility.

"We began looking at our capacity, and we knew we needed an additional facility," said Mark Wallace, general manager for Webasto's Kentucky operations.

The company considered many locations, including sites in Kentucky, Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina.

"We did a financial analysis and compared state incentive packages," Wallace pointed out.

He conceded, however, that the success and relationship the company had with the city of Lexington combined to create a powerful starting point.

"We've been successful recruiting here, and our turnover is less than 2 percent," Wallace said. "We typically recruit locally, but if we do recruit from outside, it's a very attractive location."

Ultimately, the company realized that staying where it was, and building a new 115,000 square foot plant across the street from its Lexington operations, translated into the ideal way to address the company's growth issues.

"We had a lot of options as far as locations go," Wallace said. "But the people of Kentucky, the city of Lexington and the Lexington United Business Development organization has supported us as long as we've been here, and their help has been pivotal in the first facility's success. The quality of the work force in the area, their high work ethic and high level of educational achievement all contributed to our decision."

Consequently, construction is underway on Webasto's second facility in Lexington, which will be the site of production for complex, automotive roof systems that require the encapsulation of large glass assemblies.

Having the two plants across the street from each other enables the existing and new management teams to feed off synergies between the two operations, Wallace added.

The new plant is expected to be complete in early 2003.

Maintaining a company's operations in its current location can be a good idea if additional capacity is not geographically sensitive, according to Dennis Donovan, director of global site selection for Wadley-Donovan.

Donovan said once a company determines that it does not need a regional presence, it needs to answer a few other questions: Does it make sense? What is the age and sophistication of current machinery? Can you meet new capacity needs by adding another production line? How does the productivity there measure up to other locations? How flexible will the facility be in fitting your future needs?

Sometimes, staying where you are is the most logical and cost-effective method of expanding your operations.

The Consolidation

The current rocky economy, weakened market conditions and low manufacturing capacity utilization are putting many companies in a position where a consolidation plan of action might be the best solution.

"This is the nature of a lot of projects currently out there," said Kate McEnroe, president of Kate McEnroe Consulting. "Companies are asking, 'What can we do within the realm of what we already have?'"

She said a company should ask itself if it needs to cut jobs, or if it needs to cut sites in the face of a consolidation effort.

"A lot of companies are starting to look at their internal metrics from a location-to-location perspective," McEnroe said.

It is simple to understand why a company would benefit from maintaining operations in an existing facility in the event of a consolidation.

For example, if a manufacturing company had several facilities, it could do capacity, market saturation, productivity and real estate analyses, and consequently combine operations into the facility that emerged as the most efficient site.

Taking this course of action would also allow the firm to continue utilizing the resources already in place, from work force to vendors to local government officials.

The Bottom Line

Of course, there are plenty of consolidation projects that call for bringing several existing operations under one roof in an entirely new location.

And there are plenty of expansion and relocation projects that were just born to take form on a greenfield site.

The bottom line is that your company must do its due diligence in examining and evaluating all the possible scenarios when it comes to expanding its operations.

There is no one-size-fits-all right way. But there is a solution that is custom-made for your company.

Whether that means growing in place, or changing addresses altogether, only you can say.

Rachael Hedgcoth is senior editor of Expansion Management magazine. She can be reached at rhedgcoth@penton.com.