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InterTradeIreland Business Monitor Q1 2013
- 06 June 2013
InterTradeIreland’s latest quarterly Business Monitor published today (Sunday 19th May), indicates that 36% of businesses expect that over a quarter of their sales will not be paid on time. Furthermore, over half (53%) of businesses have some debtors of over 90 days. As only 4% of businesses give 90 days credit, many firms are spending time chasing payments to avoid an impact on cashflow.
Commenting on the Q1 2013 Business Monitor findings, Aidan Gough, Strategy and Policy Director at InterTradeIreland said: “This quarter we have analysed in greater detail the key issues currently affecting businesses: cashflow and costs. On the cashflow front it is a worrying trend that companies, especially SMEs are having to wait so long to be paid. This is a major issue that can be highly detrimental to small business, in terms of cash management and the ability to remain in business.’’
This quarter, the largest business survey on the island also showed that significant steps are being taken to reduce business costs. Over half (56%) reported trying to reduce energy costs in the last year with one third indicating that they are trying to reduce telecoms bills. Analysis by region reveals that businesses in the South are more than twice as likely to have negotiated better insurance (32%) and telecoms (35%) rates than those in the North (11% and 15% respectively).
Aidan Gough continued : ‘’It is very understandable that in the current environment, businesses are putting an effort into reducing costs. It is important though that cost-cutting doesn’t undermine the overall focus on growth as this could significantly hinder economic recovery as well as the performance of individual firms. ‘’
“An interesting finding was that businesses in Ireland were more than two times as likely to have negotiated better rates with regards to telecoms, energy and insurance, than those in Northern Ireland. I would urge local SMEs to continue to be assertive when it comes to negotiating costs with suppliers and indeed in securing payments from debtors.”
InterTradereland’s quarterly Business Monitor survey is the largest and most comprehensive business survey on the island covering business owner’s views both Northern Ireland and Ireland from interviews conducted with more than 1,000 SMEs. It differs from other surveys in the fact that it is seen to be the ‘voice of local businesses’ feeding directly from telephone interviews conducted with a robust sample of businesses across a range of sectors.
Download a copy of the Executive Summary here.
Source: InterTradeIreland
