be compounded by longer delivery times for labour and materials.” Food & Drink Mr Mills believes that the food and drink industry is in for a tough time too, he said: “Food and drink manufacturers will be increasingly at risk of insolvency for the first six months of 2019, due to high pressure on margins – increased import costs and delays in payments.
Retail job losses are expected to rise nearly 20 per cent in 2019, leading to more than 160,000 job losses amid a “worsening of conditions” on the high street. The losses are predicted to be spread across both larger retailers and independents, with total retail store closures expected to rise from 18,443 this year to 22,100 in 2019. Administrations are due to account for the lion’s share of these losses, with redundancies due to administration rising from 92,579 to 102,500, while redundancies from CVA are set to more than double to 53,100. UK footfall declined from last year, with a particularly large drop in the South East of minus 12 per cent. Mr Mills added: “It doesn’t matter what sector you work in – 2019 looks like its going to be a tough year, and we’d strongly advise that business owners get the proper advice. “Credit insurance has probably never been so important in protecting your business and Brunsdon Insurance Brokers (in partnership with Euler Hermes) can help you by: gaining your free top 10 customer credit checks, providing whole turnover protection, single risk/ customer insurance, exclusion of “blue chip” businesses from turnover/ policy, bespoke/ tailored policies protecting specific elements of aged debtor receivables, advanced payment protection and long term contract cover l For more detail on how Brunsdon can help, call 01452 623632 or visit www.brunsdoninsurancebrokers.co.uk
“The trend to low margins and onerous or destabilising contracts remains commonplace in the sector, driven by a need to maintain customer relationships and/ or production volumes as a means to cover overheads at the expense of profitability, which is not sustainable in the long term. Smaller food businesses will continue to experience cash flow challenges, thanks to larger players pushing the supply chain on price and longer payment terms.” Retail He added: “More than 30,000 retailers are in “significant” financial distress. 8500 of those 30,000 are online retailers, up two per cent from the same period last year and up 49.5 per cent from the start of 2017. Even online, which has been hailed as the future of the sector, is not immune. The figures come just a week after Asos issued a profit warning, due to sales throughout November coming in “significantly behind expectations.”
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*Information sourced from Euler Hermes eulerhermes.co.uk
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