Region ranked worst for slow payment

NORTH West businesses are taking more than six weeks beyond payment terms to settle their bills, new research has shown.

However, the 31.14 days beyond terms it took local firms – on average – to pay up in the second quarter of 2013 is an improvement on the 34.17 days it took in Q1.
But it is worse than the Q2 2012 figure of 28.63 days.

By way of comparison, businesses in the West Midlands took 23.52 days beyond terms to pay up in Q2 2013 and businesses in Yorkshire took 24.16 days.

The research – from information services company Experian – also reveals that, on a national basis, larger companies were the worst offenders with businesses with more than 501 employees taking 34.19 days beyond terms to pay their bills compared to 20.78 days in the case of micro businesses with one to two employees.

From a sectoral perspective the slowest payers nationally were in the postal and telecommunications industry (44.37 days beyond terms) and leisure and hotels (32.40 days).
 
The fastest payers were in the spirits, wine and tobacco sector (9.70 days) and agriculture, forestry and fishing (10.36 days).

Businesses in the banking and financial services sector took 25.69 days beyond terms to settle up whilst in the engineering sector it was 17.68 days.

Max Firth, UK managing director for Experian’s Business Information Services division, said: “Smaller businesses should consider spending time and resources to ensure they get paid on time.”