Cardiff, 25th November 2009 -

Atradius, the leading trade credit insurer, has surveyed 3500 businesses around the world on how they have been impacted by the economic crisis and their views on the future. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the British have a less favourable view in many respects than their foreign counterparts.

Key findings were as follows:

Business failures

In line with Atradius forecasts, the companies surveyed still anticipate trouble ahead for businesses in ‘distressed’ industries, such as the automotive and retail sector, with 71% of respondents believing there will be an increase in company failures over the coming months. Even companies in industries that are not ‘distressed’ such as food, are expected to struggle, with 52% believing they will also see an increase in company failures.

Only 9% expected failures to decline making the UK one of the most pessimistic groups surveyed. With specific reference to the financial sector, 55% of UK respondents anticipated the ongoing failure of small and mid-sized financial institutions whilst 39% still expect to see failures amongst the larger banks.

Changes in the ways the UK does business

Trade credit insurers aren’t alone in performing more frequent, more detailed assessments of businesses and requiring more up-to-date information. 47% of respondents have been keeping a closer eye on their buyers, increasing the frequency of their reviews of creditworthiness due to the economic situation. This trend is one that runs through all of the countries surveyed. In addition, 43% of those surveyed have increased the number of buyers from whom they have changed credit terms.

The other notable change in the UK is that 56% of the respondents have increased their pursuit of new markets or sales channels for their products and services and 51% are maximising the assets they already have and are increasing their focus on customer service -  although an unsurprising 33% have reduced the size of their workforce.

Government initiatives

29% of UK respondents have used the government’s stimulus programmes, the second highest rate after China and 26% of respondents felt the Government was doing enough to stimulate the economy. In addition, 14% said Government schemes had enabled them to continue to sell goods and services on credit and 10% said they had helped with the sourcing of other financing. Despite this, 48% felt that Government efforts had not had any impact on their businesses.

 

The main findings for the UK and Ireland can be found by clicking these links:

• Core results UK

• Core results Ireland

 

To see the full report, please go to www.atradius.com/publications

Further information: 

Atradius

Joanne Aaron

Tel: 02920 824 873

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Polhill Communications

Gug Kyriacou

Tel.:020 7655 0550

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