Firms need to prepare for recovery say business leaders

THE region’s firms must be prepared when the economy comes out of recession or face failure.

That’s the verdict of more than 50 key figures from the private and public sectors who attended a ‘Preparing for the upturn – challenges and opportunities’ event hosted by Business Link Yorkshire.

Delegates heard presentaitons from Barry Dodd, the founder of Yorkshire-based GSM Group, Chris Rooney, director of business recovery at PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Yorkshire Forward chief economist Patrick Bowes.

Discussions were then held to identify how firms could be helped over the next 18 months as the economy recovers.

According to Mr Bowes, Yorkshire will return to growth after retracting by 5.2% last year.

A survey carried out by Business Link last year showed that sales and marketing is the biggest concern for businesses in the region (40%) with 25% saying they needed to focus on business and strategic planning.

More than 10% said they would need to access appropriate finance for growth.

Helen West, chief executive of Business Link, said that the workshop increased understanding.

“We must learn the lessons from past recessions. Meetings like this give us the opportunity to pool our knowledge and experience to ensure we give businesses appropriate support when the upturn comes.”