Wednesday, December 25, 2024

East Midlands companies must not be lulled into false sense of security by latest research figures

Back-to-back months of falling numbers of East Midlands companies with late payments, as well as a drop in insolvency-related activity in the region, should not lull business owners into a false sense of security.

This is according to the Midlands branch of R3, the UK’s insolvency and restructuring trade body, and follows an analysis of data from business intelligence provider Creditsafe.

The statistics indicate that the monthly total of East Midlands businesses with late payments has fallen consistently since the 2023 high in February but, despite the drops, the figures remain high, with June registering 23,551 local companies with overdue customer invoices.

While there have been monthly fluctuations throughout 2023 in the region’s insolvency-related activity – which includes liquidator and administrator appointments as well as creditors’ meetings – the figures show a fall of 15% in the East Midlands between May and June and of 32% since the end of the first quarter of 2023 in March.

R3 Midlands chair Stephen Rome said: “These statistics may be somewhat encouraging for local companies, but we have to be realistic and stay focused on the fact that we are continuing to operate in a very testing economic environment.

“We have the significant economic hurdles of higher inflation and an increase in the cost of finance to overcome, as well as a sizeable squeeze on consumer spend. These enormous challenges will not be going away anytime soon.

“Furthermore, overall corporate insolvency levels are above those reached before the pandemic, and Creditors’ Voluntary Liquidations are persistently high, meaning that many local business owners have felt they have had no option but to close down operations before the decision was taken away from them.

“Key advice for all company directors and sole traders, therefore, is that if significant cash flow difficulties arise, it’s crucial to ask for professional support as soon as possible. There is a significant amount which can be done to rescue a business, beyond traditional insolvency solutions, if help is taken early enough.”

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our news site - please take a moment to read this important message:

As you know, our aim is to bring you, the reader, an editorially led news site and magazine but journalism costs money and we rely on advertising, print and digital revenues to help to support them.

With the Covid-19 pandemic having a major impact on our industry as a whole, the advertising revenues we normally receive, which helps us cover the cost of our journalists and this website, have been drastically affected.

As such we need your help. If you can support our news sites/magazines with either a small donation of even £1, or a subscription to our magazine, which costs just £33.60 per year, (inc p&P and mailed direct to your door) your generosity will help us weather the storm and continue in our quest to deliver quality journalism.

As a subscriber, you will have unlimited access to our web site and magazine. You'll also be offered VIP invitations to our events, preferential rates to all our awards and get access to exclusive newsletters and content.

Just click here to subscribe and in the meantime may I wish you the very best.









Latest news

Related news

By continuing to use the site, you agree to the use of cookies. more information

The cookie settings on this website are set to "allow cookies" to give you the best browsing experience possible. If you continue to use this website without changing your cookie settings or you click "Accept" below then you are consenting to this.

Close