Economy of Penrith

The main shopping areas in the town centre are Middlegate, Little Dockray, Devonshire Street/Market Square, Cornmarket, Angel Lane and the Devonshire Arcade and Angel Square precincts with some shops in Burrowgate, Brunswick Road, Great Dockray and King Street.

Although the main industries in the area are based around tourism and agriculture there are some other industries reperesented within Penrith for example Greggs in 2011 opened a new bakery at Gilwilly replacing 2 bakeries in the Friargate area that used to belong to the Penrith based Birketts firm; Dominos Pizza have a dough manufacturing site at Gilwilly and the model firm Lilliput Lane (now part of Enesco) was founded in Penrith and until March 2009 had its main factory at Skirsgill Park. Also at Penrith Industrial Estate is the Penrith Door Company factory formerly belonging to Magnet Joinery, now part of the American based JELD-WEN group.

Agricultural based industries include BOCM Pauls who have a large animal feed mill on the Penrith Industrial Estate and until 2005 there was another Feed Mill at Gilwilly originally belonging to Cumberland and Westmorland Farmers Ltd but eventually becoming part of the Carrs Milling Industries group. Local butchers Cranstons have an expanding meat packing, pies and sandwich manufacturing site alongside their shop and head office on Ullswater Road.

In the past Penrith was known for its tanning industry and breweries. The tanning factories were located mainly in the Friargate/Old London Road area of the town. There were at one time five working breweries in the town. Penrith in recent years has attracted many large, international haulage firms to open depots beside the M6