Louisville, Kentucky - Economy

Economy

Main article: Economy of Louisville, Kentucky See also: Greater Louisville Inc.

Louisville's early economy first developed through the shipping and cargo industries. Its strategic location at the Falls of the Ohio, as well as its unique position in the central United States (within one day's road travel to 60% of the cities in the continental U.S.) make it an ideal location for the transfer of cargo along its route to other destinations. The Louisville and Portland Canal and the Louisville and Nashville Railroad were important links in water and rail transportation. Louisville's importance to the shipping industry continues today with the presence of the Worldport global air-freight hub for UPS at Louisville International Airport. Louisville's location at the crossroads of three major Interstate highways (I-64, I-65 and I-71) also contributes to its modern-day strategic importance to the shipping and cargo industry. As of 2003, Louisville ranks as the 7th largest inland port in the United States.

Recently, Louisville has emerged as a major center for the health care and medical sciences industries. Louisville has been central to advancements in heart and hand surgery as well as cancer treatment. Some of the earliest artificial heart transplants were conducted in Louisville. Louisville's thriving downtown medical research campus includes a new $88 million rehabilitation center, and a health sciences research and commercialization park that, in partnership with the University of Louisville, has lured nearly 70 top scientists and researchers. Louisville is also home to Humana, one of the nation's largest health insurance companies.

Louisville is home to several major corporations and organizations:

• Brown-Forman (Fortune 1000)
• CafePress, Inc
• Hillerich & Bradsby (manufacturer of Louisville Slugger baseball bats)
• Hilliard Lyons (investment firm)
• Humana (Fortune 100)
• Kindred Healthcare (Fortune 500)
• Norton Healthcare
• Papa John's Pizza
• PharMerica (Fortune 1000)
• Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
• Republic Bank & Trust Company
• SHPS (healthcare and human resources services company)
• Spunk!, publishers of Silver Gems and Southern Belle adult erotica lines, and the magazines Oh, My!, Suburban

Dreams, Leather'N'Lace, Barely Grown, Hot Town, and Steam; Letters and Stories.

• Texas Roadhouse
• Thorntons
• Tumbleweed Southwest Grill
• Kimmer-Paulson MediTech,manufacturer of precision medical tools and equipment
• UPS Airlines
• Yum! Brands (owners of KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell which were formerly Tricon Global Restaurants (a spin-off of PepsiCo) as well as Long John Silver's and A & W Restaurants which were formerly Yorkshire Global Restaurants) (Fortune 500)

Louisville for a long time was also home to Brown & Williamson, the third largest company in the tobacco industry before merging with R. J. Reynolds in 2004 to form the Reynolds American Company. Brown & Williamson, one of the subjects of the tobacco industry scandals of the 1990s, was the focus of The Insider, a 1999 film shot around the Louisville area. Also located in Louisville are two major Ford plants, the headquarters of GE Consumer & Industrial a subsidiary of General Electric, and a major General Electric appliance factory.

Additionally, one-third of all of the bourbon whiskey comes from Louisville. The Brown-Forman Corporation is one of the major makers of bourbon, which is headquartered in Louisville. Other major distilleries of bourbon can be found both in the city of Louisville, and in neighboring cities in Kentucky.

Louisville also prides itself in its large assortment of small, independent businesses and restaurants, some of which have become known for their ingenuity and creativity. In 1926 the Brown Hotel became the home of the Hot Brown "sandwich". A few blocks away, the Seelbach Hotel, which F. Scott Fitzgerald references in The Great Gatsby, is also famous for a secret back room where Al Capone would regularly meet with associates during the Prohibition era. The drink the Old Fashioned was invented in Louisville's Pendennis Club.

Several major motion pictures have also been filmed in or near Louisville, including The Insider, Goldfinger, Stripes, Lawn Dogs, Elizabethtown and Secretariat.