Partner Article

Companies in the North â??faring better'

More than half (58%) of all small businesses in the UK say their business has already been affected by the much economic downturn. That’s the result of new research revealed this week by Bacs Payment Schemes Limited, confirming recent reports on the state of the nation.

However, Northern businesses appear to be bucking the national trend and fairing better than their counterparts in the rest of the country. When questioned in June, almost half (45%) of SMEs in the North of England said they had experienced no visible indicators of the economic slow down that has been so widely reported.

Almost a third of SMEs polled confirmed that late payments were becoming a bigger problem, with payments overdue coming in even later, indicating that cash flow has become more difficult to manage as the financial climate has tightened in recent months. As a result, over a quarter said they are now spending more time than ever chasing late payments.

Michael Chambers, managing director of Bacs, said: “With new stories breaking every day about the state of the economy, we wanted to ask the people at the coal face to find out exactly what SMEs in Great Britain are currently experiencing. Unfortunately, the overall results do seem to mirror what’s being reported more widely. However, it’s good to see that companies in the North of England and Scotland report that they seem to be weathering the initial storm better.

“Smaller organisations will be aware of the implications of late payments and therefore need to do everything in their power to keep to agreed payment terms. Automated payment methods like Bacs Direct Credit can help with this and, from a credit perspective, Direct Debit can also help organisations ensure that payments are made on time, every time.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .