Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland, Great Britain

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 Dunfermline is a town and former Royal Burgh, and parish, in Fife, Scotland. The town is a major service centre for west Fife. Dunfermline retains much of its historic significance, as well as providing facilities for leisure. Employment is focused in the service sector.

Economy The Dunfermline area has Fife's largest concentration of employment providing approximately 26,600 jobs in 2009; approximately 16% of the 163,000 jobs in Fife. Wholesale and Retail (over 18% of local jobs) Health and Social Work (over 15% of local jobs) and Information and Communication (over 10% of local jobs) are the predominant sectors in the local economy. There are also moderate instances of employment in finance, manufacturing, food services and accommodation.

Key local employers include Best Western (hotels), Sky UK (home entertainment and communications), CR Smith (windows manufacturing), FMC Technologies (offshore energy), Lloyds (financial services) and Nationwide (financial services). In November 2011 online retailer Amazon.com opened a 93,000 m² (1,000,000 sq ft) fulfilment warehouse in the east of the town adjacent to the M90 motorway. This development has created over 750 jobs and is the company's largest warehouse in the UK. The Newcastle based, Shepherd Offshore Group also plan to erect a renewables hub near the Halbeath Interchange, off the M90 on a 6-hectare (15-acre) former Hyundai/Motorola 'white elephant' factory. The demolition of the factory began in early 2011 with an expected date for completion at the end of the year. A masterplan is being created for the site identifying significant investment and development opportunities with the potential to create a substantial number of new jobs.

Dunfermline is the principal shopping centre serving the western area of Fife and is the region's second largest town centre by floor-space. Retailing accounts for 18% of the total number of jobs in the town. A BID (Business Improvement District) scheme for the city centre has been in operation since 2009. The majority of shops and retail services in Dunfermline are concentrated in the town centre along a high street. The Kingsgate Shopping Centre is located on the pedestrianised section of the High Street giving Dunfermline a mix of modern and traditional shops. A major extension of the Kingsgate Shopping Centre was completed in 2008 improving and expanding the retail offer in the town by attracting a major department store brand and range of other smaller retailers. Other retail areas in Dunfermline exist at Carnegie Drive Retail Park to the north of the town centre and Halbeath Retail Park to the east of the town. A large neighbourhood centre with one of the towns major supermarkets was also built as part of the eastern expansion area of Dunfermline. The Fife Leisure Park, constructed in 1999 is adjacent to the M90 at Halbeath on the eastern outskirts of Dunfermline. The leisure park has a large cinema, a health club, bowling alley and a number of restaurants.