Over 4,000 Nottingham businesses in ‘significant distress’
More than 4,000 businesses in Nottingham are in “significant financial distress” and the number is on the rise, according to a new report.
Figures from Begbies Traynor’s latest Red Flag Alert report, which monitors the financial health of UK companies, revealed 4,324 businesses in the city to be in significant financial distress during the final quarter of 2018, up 4% compared with the previous quarter. Year on year, the number of ailing businesses dropped by 4%, but experts at the UK’s leading independent insolvency firm expect this trend to reverse during 2019.
Sports and health clubs and bars and restaurants are faring the worst in Nottingham, with those considered to be in significant financial distress having increased by 13% and 10% respectively during the past quarter.
It wasn’t all bad news for businesses in the city, however, with fewer hotels and printing and packaging firms facing financial difficulties than in the previous quarter.
Peter Blair, consultant and licensed insolvency practitioner at Begbies Traynor, said: “After a period of relative stability, these figures for Q4 show that Nottingham businesses have experienced a winter of discontent. Customers for traditional shop‐front retailers are going online and the uncertainty of Brexit is having an effect on investment in a number of sectors. It seems, for the last quarter at least, that businesses are holding out for a decision on the terms of Brexit in order to see where they stand, which is having a knock‐on effect on consumer confidence.
“With 2019 set to be a year of change, Nottingham businesses ‐ not only retailers – will need to adapt and rapidly evolve to survive.”
Nationally, the report shows the number of businesses in ‘significant’ distress now stands at 481,000, leaping by 15,000 during Q4 2018, after a winter of uncertainty.
The hardest hit sector was real estate and property, which not only saw a 7% (3,134) increase in the number of companies in significant distress from Q3 2018 to Q4 2018, but a 9% year on year increase, equating to 4,013 extra businesses.
