Business troubles rise as consumer confidence falls

Source - BBC

 

 

The number of UK firms showing signs of serious financial problems is growing as customers tighten their belts, says a report by corporate recovery experts.

 

Begbies Traynor reports a 15% rise in firms suffering "significant" or "critical" financial distress in the first quarter of 2011 over last year.

 

The leisure sector was particularly badly hit, according to the report.

 

Begbies attributed part of the rise to people cutting discretionary spending in the face of anticipated job losses.

 

'Impending redundancies'

 

The worst-hit sector was bars and restuarants, where businesses facing difficult financial issues rose 68% compared with the same period in 2010.

 

Leisure and culture, and sport and recreation suffered rises of 60% and 23%.

 

Professional services was also badly hit, with a 61% increase in companies in trouble.

 

The report said a "significant number" of public-sector staff would have received formal notice of redundancy, which it said would have had an impact on discretionary consumer spending.

 

Begbies executive chairman Ric Traynor said: "Compared with our figures for food retail, which show little change, it seems likely that a fall in consumer confidence and spending power, driven by anticipated job losses, lies at the core of the leisure sector's troubles."

 

And he warned: "Over 15,000 firms in the professional services sector are showing signs of significant or critical problems - partly driven by a stale property- and corporate-deals market - often the drivers for an active professional services community."

 

Mr Traynor said firms that operated with a high fixed-cost base were finding current market conditions increasingly difficult.

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I bet all these "business leaders" who signed up to the Tories' stupid ideas last year before the election are now seriously feeling a bit sick now.... Or maybe they just don't give a f'uck, after all, it wont be them that suffer because of this, it'll be their (underpaid, overworked) staff.... <_<

 

Yeah, "Cuts and the Private Sector will save the day" folks... Don't worry...

Double Dip Recession here we come :funky:

 

 

 

I'm betting that Oscunte, Ca-moron and Traitor will be singing their little line "The cuts are necessary, it's labours fault, they over spent, the cuts are necessary!" all the way to the bottom of the ocean to join the Titanic.

 

Its a shame that by the time any body actually realises how f***ed we are with that trio of idiots this once great nation will be receiving an EU/IMF bail out, our credit rating will be down the toilet and our economy will be in such a state we'd be the laughing stock of Europe.

Double Dip Recession here we come :funky:

I'm betting that Oscunte, Ca-moron and Traitor will be singing their little line "The cuts are necessary, it's labours fault, they over spent, the cuts are necessary!" all the way to the bottom of the ocean to join the Titanic.

 

Its a shame that by the time any body actually realises how f***ed we are with that trio of idiots this once great nation will be receiving an EU/IMF bail out, our credit rating will be down the toilet and our economy will be in such a state we'd be the laughing stock of Europe.

 

I'd heard that the conditions that the IMF were going to impose weren't actually as severe as the cuts Ca-Moron, Gideon and Traitor were imposing...

 

 

It somehow doesn't surprise me that the austerity measures proposed by the IMF for a bankrupt economy aren't as harsh as the cuts by the trio of idiots.